HIGH ACHIEVERS: 4 gold medals at Olympic Hopes regatta ‘a feeling of completion’ for Rideau Canoe Club’s Madeleine Beauregard

By Martin Cleary

Perfection is a grandiose idea and rarely achieved in sport.

There have only been 28 perfect games in more than 238,500 Major League Baseball matches, where pitchers have retired 27 straight batters with no opposing player reaching base.

You’d have far more luck trying to record a perfect game in 10-pin bowling as it’s accomplished thousands of times each year in North America, where bowlers connect for 12 straight strikes in a single game.

Rideau Canoe Club’s Madeleine Beauregard achieved her own version of perfection at the recent Olympic Hopes Regatta in Racice, Czechia, when she won all eight of her individual or crew boat races in the under-17 women’s canoe category.

By placing first in her four heat races, she automatically qualified for four finals, where she experienced the fastest times in all four against the world’s best canoeists in her age group and emerged with four Olympic Hopes gold medals.

“Yes, I would say it was a perfect regatta. I couldn’t ask for better than I got,” Beauregard, an honours student in Grade 12 at Glebe Collegiate Institute, said in a phone interview this week.

Competing in only her second international competition for Canada, Beauregard, 17, raced two qualifying heats on each of Sept. 18 and 19. Her performances promoted her to four finals Sept. 19-21, which saw her become a four-time champion.

Not recognized as a sprinter, Beauregard and three-time 2025 world junior canoe champion Isabel Lowry of the Carleton Place Canoe Club combined to win the C2 200-metre final in 46.002 seconds on Sept. 19. They posted a 1.1-second decision over the second-place team from Lithuania and were 1.7 seconds better than the pair from France.

The most challenging day was Sept. 20 with two finals spread over 500 metres apiece. In her opening race that Saturday, Beauregard gave a dominant effort with a winning C1 time of 2:14.092. She finished more than 2.3 seconds and 3.7 seconds ahead of her respective Brazilian and Germany podium peers.

Beauregard ended her second day of finals by joining Carleton Place Canoe Club’s Abbigail Haines to capture the C2 women’s 500 metres in an even more dramatic fashion. The Canadian team was timed in 2:07.745, which left them 3.6 seconds in front of Hungary and almost four seconds ahead of France.

The final race for Beauregard was the C4 500-metre test, where she worked with Lowry, Megan Thompson and Grace Theunissen to produce the best time of 1:56.273. Brazil was second in 1:58.327, while France placed third in 1:59.749.

“I’m very happy with myself,” a thrilled Beauregard recalled. “It was a feeling of completion as all the hard work has paid off. It was nice to see the results in a big regatta.”

Beauregard entered the Olympic Hopes Regatta, which is considered an unofficial world championship for U16 and U17 paddlers, brimming with confidence.

“I have raced enough races to know what to do. My racing is getting better and I go to the (start) line knowing what to do. That took a lot of weight off my shoulders,” she explained.

“I went down the course and, if I did my best, I would have my best result. I know I gave 110 per cent and it worked out well.”

The Olympic Hopes C2 200-metre races were a new experience for Beauregard, who found it exciting rather than intimidating. She fed off Lowry’s strength as a sprinter.

Beauregard, however, was comfortable in the C2 500 metres with Haines as they both had good energy in their strokes and were calm and composed.

The C4 500 was a Made-for-Canada race, Beauregard said.

“Canada has many good athletes and is strong in (women’s) canoe,” she said. “Not all countries can put together four athletes of equivalent speed. That was our advantage. We put together four good paddlers and make a good boat.”

Beauregard qualified for not only the Olympic Hopes, but also the world juniors in Montemor-O-Velho, Portugal at the Canadian team trials in Montreal at the end of June.

In her international debut at the world junior championships near the end of July, Beauregard joined forces with Lowry, Amelie Laliberte and Theunissen to win the gold medal in the women’s IC4 500-metre final. She also was an impressive sixth in the women’s C1 500 metres and only 1.49 seconds out of first place.

“We won and we were so excited. It came down to our communication as a crew. We knew our strengths and weaknesses and we worked together. We fixed the problems early,” she explained, adding the team worked together at the pre-worlds training camp in Halifax.

Competing at the higher-level world junior championships, she saw some of the paddlers she would face at Olympic Hopes, which worked to her advantage.

“I had a good idea how I could do,” Beauregard said about her approach to Olympic Hopes. “Canada has a strong women’s canoe program. I’ve had some (international) experience. I like to do my best and I was just so happy my best was quite good.”

She was named for the first time this season to the Canoe Kayak Ontario sprint team program. She is one of three women canoeists in the Quest for Gold Ontario Athlete Assistance Program along with Lowry and Haines. The financial support she receives helped her compete at the world junior championships and Olympic Hopes.

Beauregard was introduced to paddling during a summer program nine years ago at the Rideau Canoe Club. She returned to the sport during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 as it was a safe outdoor activity.

Despite being a late entry into canoeing, she didn’t pressure herself to become good. Over time, Beauregard discovered she was becoming better in canoe training and racing, and started to take it more seriously.

By participating in cross-country skiing, swimming and circus aerials in the past, she was able to convert that fitness into a positive for canoeing.

In 2025-26, Beauregard will race as a U18 competitor and will be applying for acceptance into university. She hopes to study in the health sciences field.