This has been a trying year for Meaghan Benfeito in more ways than one.
Benfeito has been diving for Canada since 2005 and was the flag bearer at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. She won three Olympic bronze medals combined in London and Rio, and was ready to head to her final Games in 2020 to write the last chapter of one of the most decorated careers in Canadian diving history.
But, as we all know, that didn’t come to pass on schedule. The path to her final Games was far from linear. It was first delayed by postponement, and then marred by catastrophe and near tragedy.
In January, the 32-year-old Montreal native saw the third-floor condominium she shared with boyfriend and CFL player Alexandre Dupuis burn to the ground. Everyone in the 15-unit, three-story building escaped unharmed, but the entire complex was destroyed, and Benfeito lost her Olympic and Pan-Am Games medals.
Soon after, Mélanie Rinaldi, Benfeito’s former diving teammate, set up a GoFundMe page that Canadians are still donating to. And now Benfeito and Dupuis are living in a Laval condo while deciding on their next move, which Benfeito hopes is a home.
Despite all of that, her pursuit of the Tokyo Games continued unabated. Benfeito started her Olympics last week with an incredibly tight fourth-place finish in 10-metre synchronized diving with her partner, Caeli McKay. But she still has one more chance to make the podium with the individual 10-metre event that begins on Wednesday at 2:00 a.m. EDT.
I caught up with her ahead of the Games to learn about everything she’s been through, the support she’s received, and how all of it shaped the lead-up to Tokyo.
Sportsnet.ca: The Games were deferred, and that allowed you to gain partnerships when many athletes had financial uncertainty. What’s your role in the newest one?
Meaghan Benfeito: I mean, just the program that Kraft peanut butter is throwing is already incredible because I feel like Team Canada is the team that sticks together the most.... And now the fact that there’s no fans in the stands, the fact that they can go to sticktogether.ca and actually send out their cheers means a lot, because I think cheering for athletes is what gets us going.
In Rio, I noticed that in the final between my first and my last dive it got louder and louder. Just because, the better we dove, the louder the people cheer. It’s really important for the athletes to hear those cheers. And I think it’s important for people to also know that they could send us their cheers virtually, and we will be able to listen to them.
The Games were obviously pushed back because we’re in a global pandemic. What has this period been like for you to figure out how to train, how to stay ready and get through those obstacles to make sure you’re ready for your Olympic moment?
It’s been hard. I’m not going to lie. It was my last Olympic cycle. I wasn’t going to retire right after the 2020 Olympics; I was going to go an extra year to do the world aquatic championships, give myself a year to kind of figure things out, kind of say goodbye to all the other athletes around the world, my friends and everything. But it’s been hard.
I had to get creative during the three-month lockdown from March to June, but we were very grateful for the fact that we were able to go back to the pool on June 15.
Motivation is there some days or not there at all. But it’s also important, I feel, to go through those emotions to really allow yourself to feel that because, I mean, we’re training for the Olympics. It’s never easy.... It was never, “Oh, yeah, it’s smooth sailing until then.” [But] just makes the victory sweeter at the end.
It’s also obviously been hard for you, not just for your career, but personally, given the fire and losing so much of your life, but also your medals. Take me through that process of what that was like in the moment and the fight to get those medals back?
It actually wasn’t a big fight for me — Diving Canada, the COC and the IOC reacted extremely fast. I think it was like the night of or the next morning that they were already on the phone asking for replicas, which was very fast in my perspective. I’m very grateful for that, that speed that they worked at.
But [at the same time], I don’t wish it on anybody. It’s not fun to just see your house go down in flames. I have my moments. There are days I just start crying out of nowhere because I miss a pair of leggings that I had and I’m like, “Oh no, I don’t have those anymore.” But I’m alive and healthy. No one got hurt. And I think that’s what’s most important — the fact that absolutely nobody got hurt and everybody got out safe. Everybody’s well taken care of.
We all have roofs over our heads. I was able to go back to the pool and really do what I love the most, which is diving. I have absolutely amazing people surrounding me. So that’s why I am able to still be here and smile through it all.
This is what it’s truly about.
After their fourth-place finish, Caeli McKay could barely walk. Injured her ankle three weeks ago. Competed today.
So Meaghan Benfeito carried her out of the press conference. Synchro divers together through it all. #Tokyo2020 pic.twitter.com/a3EzNaBeVf— Devin Heroux (@Devin_Heroux) July 27, 2021
Your boyfriend, CFL player Alexandre Dupuis, has gone through this with you. What are the cheers and motivation that you’re getting from him?
Today was a rough day. And I was just on a call with him and he’s like, “Maybe it’s part of the process. It’s all right. It’s okay to cry, but it’s part of the process.” I feel like athletes are so hard on themselves and we always want to be better every day. And then when something bad happens, you kind of always think of that instead of just seeing the positive side of everything.
And he was like, “No, don’t worry, you got this. You know how to do it.” He’s the one that just keeps me motivated. I feel like before I met him, I was a positive person. But then I would always dwell on my bad performances.... Whereas now being with him, I kind of see the process through it all.
So that’s why I say that I want to finish with a smile regardless of the result. At the end, obviously we all want medals.... But he kind of taught me that you won’t get to your result if you don’t enjoy the process. And I think that’s something that I keep thanking him [for], and I’m grateful for that because it made me into a better person as well.
I think I enjoy diving a lot more than before I met him.
It’s good advice. So, you’re getting cheerful messages from him and from Canadians. Let’s turn the tables. What message do you have for Canadians as they try to emerge from a difficult time for all of us?
My message would be to just enjoy life. We only have one life to live. I literally lost absolutely everything in January, and I feel like that kind of taught me how to just live every day as if it was your last, regardless of what you’re going through. Not everybody’s in the same position. Some people have a harder life than others. But to just enjoy life because you can — you’ll never know when it gets taken away from you.
And I saw that, like in flames, like the blink of an eye, that everything could have been gone. I was going in the bath right when that happened, so I could have possibly not heard it or not seen the fire or not got out in time.
So just enjoy life. I know it’s hard. It’s okay to cry. It’s okay to not be okay. But just always try to find something positive at the end of the day because you’re still alive, you’re still healthy, you still have family, you still have people that care about you.
So just enjoy life and take it one day at a time.
