Maxim Bouchard

Biography

Maxim Bouchard was part of the national junior team program from 2006 to 2008 but didn’t make the senior team until 2013, following a three year break from competition (2008-11). At 18 he was no longer motivated to compete but an opportunity arose to perform in some diving shows. During a practice in the Philippines in March 2010, the square-foot platform that he was standing on collapsed, causing him to fall more than six metres into a three metre deep cement hole. He broke his humerus and his wrist, requiring surgery. He needed 40 stitches in his head. His arm was paralyzed for six months because his radial nerve had been hit. That accident made him realize that diving was his passion and he needed to do everything he could to be successful. After a year and a half of rehab, he returned to the Canadian championships in December 2011 and won a bronze medal in the 3m springboard. He won his first senior Canadian titles in 2013, winning the 10m and 10m synchro (with Philippe Gagné) events at the winter nationals. In 2014 Bouchard competed at the Commonwealth Games and FINA World Cup. That season, he also underwent shoulder surgery and endured a broken foot. In 2015, he competed in the 10m platform at the Pan Am Games in Toronto and made his FINA World Championship debut. Ranked sixth overall in the 10m platform on the 2016 FINA World Series, he finished an impressive seventh at the FINA World Cup in Rio in February 2016. In his Olympic debut at Rio 2016, Bouchard just missed advancing to the 10m semifinal by one place.

Getting to Know…

Family: Parents Gaston and Nicole Bouchard… Older brother Raphael is a professional dancer who spent 10 years with Les Ballets de Monte Carlo and is now a soloist with Les Grand Ballets Canadiens… Getting into the Sport: Started diving at age 4 because he wanted to do everything his older brother did… Stuck with it after his brother quit because he loved the adrenaline… Outside Interests: Enjoys traveling, likes to discover new places and new foods… Car and fashion enthusiast who has done some modelling… Would like to pursue a career in public relations and events… Auctioned off his own artwork for Centre D’Apprentissage Parallele for mental health… Odds and Ends: Favourite motto: The happiest people don’t have the best of everything, they just make the best of everything they have… Role model is 1996 Olympic bronze medallist Annie Pelletier; saw her on TV before the Games and he’s been diving ever since… Favourite Olympic memory is figure skater Joannie Rochette win bronze at Vancouver 2010 after the sudden passing of her mother…