BLAIS-BELANGER Marc-Antoine

General
COVID QUALIFIER SCARE
In April 2021, he thought he had lost his chance to qualify for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo when he tested positive for COVID-19 at the Pan-American Zonal Olympic Qualifier in San Jose, Costa Rica. After a 36-hour period of quarantine in his hotel room, he was then told the test result had been a mistake and he had a second test that was negative. Although he had lost preparation time, he went on to compete in his first event for 14 months due to the lack of competitions because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He had also been removed from the list of athletes receiving financial support from Sport Canada and he estimated that competing in Costa Rica cost him more than 3000 Canadian dollars. He subsequently won the qualifier. "I had been really careful in the previous weeks. I was disinfecting everything because I didn't want to lose my chance of going to Tokyo because of a positive test. I'd have preferred to lose that chance in a match. I was stressed in the morning and I had a hard time eating, but I couldn't believe it when I won the final. For five minutes, me and my coach weren't able to say anything. We were so excited and happy." (ici.radio-canada.ca, 04 May 2021; lapresse.ca, 04 May 2021)

OCCUPATION
In mid 2021 he was working as junior engineer for a company that specialises in building mechanics in Montreal, QC, Canada. He is planning to pursue a career in aerospace engineering and, during his mechanical engineering studies, he received The Ohio State University Outstanding Freshman Award for Mechanical Engineering in 2015. (ici.radio-canada.ca, 04 May 2021; ohiostatebuckeyes.com, 24 Jul 2018, 19 Apr 2019)

COLLEGE CAREER
During his studies in the United States of America, he served as captain of The Ohio State University fencing team for three years. He also won the 2018 NCAA individual epee title and was shortlisted as a finalist for the 2018 Big Ten Conference Medal of Honor and believes his collegiate experiences were ideal preparation for an international career in fencing. "There's so much pressure in NCAA competition because everyone's trying to go out and be the best for their school. There's always so much intensity in every tournament. I think that's going to help me a lot to handle pressure." (ohiostatebuckeyes.com, 24 Jul 2018, 19 Apr 2019; thelantern.com, 09 Apr 2018)