Lifeguards at a swim meet? A longtime Canadian coach owes his life to them

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There’s a running joke at major swim meets such as the Olympic trials being held this week in Toronto: with so many of the world’s best swimmers around, what are the lifeguards for?

The answer has less to do with the swimming itself, and more to do with expecting the unexpected.

Claude St-Jean found that out several months ago. As one of Canada’s longest-tenured coaches, he’s overseen more than a few Olympic swimmers, knows the mechanics of a perfect stroke, and is probably as unlikely to need a lifeguard as anyone.

But at a meet in Pointe-Claire, Que., in December, the 69-year-old collapsed in the bleachers and the world went blank. When he regained consciousness, doctors informed him he suffered a massive heart attack.

“I was dead for two minutes, they said,” St-Jean recalled. The lifeguards brought him back.

This week, the long-time coach is authoring his own comeback story, at a meet he might not have lived to see. Less than six months later, he is back patrolling the pool at Canada’s Olympic trials, with 22 swimmers under his watch.

A lengthy scar on his left leg and an incision down the middle of his chest that he calls his “zipper,” remind him of the quadruple-bypass surgery that’s given him a new lease on coaching life. It’s also a reminder of the unexpected things fate can suddenly throw at you.

“They say I was in the right place,” he said. “If I had stayed home that night, I wouldn’t be here today. I would just be dead in my apartment.”

The ordeal has given him new perspective.

Having reached the highest echelons of the sport – coaching Marianne Limpert to a silver medal in Atlanta in 1996, and Katerine Savard, who won a relay bronze in Rio in 2016 – St-Jean took a step back after the heart attack. He leaned on his colleagues at Club Aquatique Montreal (CAMO), the respected Quebec program.

“The coaches I work with put the brakes on for me. They go ‘Slow down, sit down, stop worrying.’ I have good people around me,” St-Jean said.

Still he found it tough to stay away, particularly with Olympic trials a few months away. After being released from the hospital, he coached from his bed, writing up training plans at home and talking to the swimmers by phone.

Eventually he made it back to the pool. First with a lighter schedule, and now fully back and feeling better than before. The thought of missing Olympic trials wasn’t an option.

“I didn’t think about that. I thought more about being there for my swimmers. Because they come to swim with you, they come to have your expertise and you’re not there. That’s what I wanted,” he said.

During the months he was recuperating, several of his swimmers pressed on without him.

Antoine Sauvé, an 18-year-old vying for a spot in the 100-metre freestyle in Paris, is attending his first Olympic trials this week, and is relieved the worst of the ordeal is behind them.

“When he was absent it was kind of hard,” Sauvé said.

“But now he’s back, you can really see a difference. Seeing him happy on deck is making me happy.”

Teammates, Sebastian Gonzalez Barboza and Eduard-Daniel Rusu didn’t qualify in the 400 individual medley on Tuesday, but made it through the upheaval. As did international swimmer Ali Sayed, who is attempting to represent Egypt in the Summer Olympics under St-Jean’s tutelage.

“Some of them were like, I’m swimming this one for my coach,” St-Jean said, pausing for a second to collect his thoughts. “Now I’m crying,” he said through tears. “Emotions.”

In a role reversal, the swimmers are now coaching him. “We’re pushing him to stay in shape and always asking if he’s okay,” Sauvé said.

Later this week, St-Jean will be inducted into Swimming Canada’s Circle of Excellence, the sport’s version of a Canadian Hall of Fame.

He’s as grateful to be celebrating victories outside the water as the ones in the pool. “I’m glad to be here,” he said.

So what are the lifeguards for? St-Jean laughed.

“Because you never know.”