Benoît Huot

Benoit Huot CM CQ (born January 24, 1984) is a Canadian Paralympic swimmer, who has won nine Paralympic Games gold medals for Canada, primarily in the freestyle and butterfly strokes.[1]

Benoît Huot
CM CQ
Personal information
Born (1984-01-24) January 24, 1984
Longueuil, Quebec, Canada
Height1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Weight68 kg (150 lb)
Sport
Country Canada
SportSwimming(S10)
Medal record
Men's swimming (S10)
Representing  Canada
Paralympic Games
Gold medal – first place 2000 Sydney 50 m freestyle S10
Gold medal – first place 2000 Sydney 100 m butterfly S10
Gold medal – first place 2000 Sydney 200 m individual medley SM10
Gold medal – first place 2004 Athens 50 m freestyle S10
Gold medal – first place 2004 Athens 100 m freestyle S10
Gold medal – first place 2004 Athens 400 m freestyle S10
Gold medal – first place 2004 Athens 100 m butterfly S10
Gold medal – first place 2004 Athens 200 m individual medley SM10
Gold medal – first place 2012 London 200 m individual medley SM10
Silver medal – second place 2000 Sydney 100 m freestyle S10
Silver medal – second place 2000 Sydney 400 m freestyle S10
Silver medal – second place 2000 Sydney 100 m backstroke S10
Silver medal – second place 2004 Athens 100 m backstroke S10
Silver medal – second place 2012 London 400 m freestyle S10
Bronze medal – third place 2008 Beijing 50 m freestyle S10
Bronze medal – third place 2008 Beijing 100 m freestyle S10
Bronze medal – third place 2008 Beijing 400 m freestyle S10
Bronze medal – third place 2008 Beijing 200 m individual medley SM10
Bronze medal – third place 2012 London 100 m backstroke S10
Bronze medal – third place 2016 Rio de Janeiro 400 m freestyle S10
IPC World Championships
Silver medal – second place2015 Glasgow 200m medley SM10
Silver medal – second place2015 Glasgow 400m freestyle S10
Bronze medal – third place2015 Glasgow100 m backstroke S10
IPC World Championships - 25m
Silver medal – second place2009 Rio de Janeiro 50 m freestyle S10
Silver medal – second place2009 Rio de Janeiro 100 m freestyle S10
Silver medal – second place2009 Rio de Janeiro 200 m individual medley SM10
Parapan American Games
Gold medal – first place2015 TorontoS10 400 m freestyle
Silver medal – second place2015 TorontoS10 200 m ind. medley
Silver medal – second place2015 TorontoS10 100 m backstroke
Silver medal – second place2015 Toronto34pts 4x100 m Medley Relay

Hailing from Longueuil, Quebec, Huot was born with club feet, started swimming competitively at age 10 at the CAMO Natation club, where he is trained by Benoit Lebrun. In the beginning he competed alongside able-bodied swimmers and competed at two Quebec Games, earning silver in 1997.

Career

Benoit Huot made his international debut in 1998 as a member of Canada's team at the International Paralympic Committee world championships, where he won two gold and four silver medals. He added three more gold and three silver medals at the 2000 Paralympics and eight medals at the 2002 IPC Swimming World Championships.

In 2003, Huot was named the male athlete of the year with a disability by the International Commonwealth Federation.

In 2004, Huot grabbed five gold medals, one silver medal and three world records at the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens.

In 2005, Huot won six golds at the Disability Sport England Swimming Championships. He then went on to take a gold and a silver at the inaugural Paralympic World Cup in Manchester in events that were swum just 15 minutes apart. This led the Swimming World Magazine to award him the World Disabled Swimmer of the Year award.

At the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London he won gold, silver, and bronze medals, giving him a total of 19 medals in four Paralympic Games. He was named Canada's flag bearer for the Games closing ceremony.[1]

Huot has served on the athletes' council with Swimming Canada, the Canadian Paralympic Committee and Commonwealth Games Federation.[1]

Awards and honours

In 2011, Huot was inducted into the Canadian Disability Hall of Fame.[2] In December 2016, Huot was named a Member of the Order of Canada.[3] In 2018, he was made a Knight of the National Order of Quebec.[4]

Robbery

On July 27, 2014, Huot's home in Longueuil was robbed. Among the stolen items were seven medals, including two Paralympic medals.[5] The athlete then appealed to the public Sunday afternoon on Twitter. The idea of never seeing his medals is "heartbreaking," he pleads. "Those medals represent a lifetime of work. Hours and hours of work to get them," said Huot in an interview.

As Huot's house was under renovation at the time, he was not there when it was broken into during the night from Saturday to Sunday. The Longueuil Police Department is continuing its investigation.

References
  1. Canadian Paralympic Committee (September 9, 2012). "Benoît Huot "The Shark" named Team Canada Flag Bearer for London 2012 Paralympic Games Closing Ceremony". Canada Newswire. Archived from the original on February 21, 2014. Retrieved September 9, 2012.
  2. "Previous Hall of Fame Inductees". Canadian Foundation for Physically Disabled Persons. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
  3. "Order of Canada's newest appointees include Paralympian, Supreme Court judge and astrophysicist". CBC News, December 30, 2016.
  4. "Citation" (PDF) (in French).
  5. "Cash reward offered for return of Paralympic swimmer Huot's stolen medals". ctvnews.ca. 6 August 2014. Retrieved 15 August 2014.
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