Gatineau athlete finishes Invictus Games with 4 medals, countless new friends
Team Canada co-captain Natacha Dupuis, a retired master corporal living with PTSD, took 3 golds in 1 day
Gatineau's Natacha Dupuis finished this year's Invictus Games in Toronto with four new medals around her neck and countless new friends from around the world.
Dupuis, a retired master corporal who co-captained the Team Canada, won gold medals in the 100-, 200- and 400-metre sprints last Monday, in the midst of a rare September heat wave.
"It was very hot. It [felt like] about 40 C when we did our race. I was getting tired as the day went along but the crowd gave us so much energy," she told host Hallie Cotnam on CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning Monday.
"The event was sold out, the bleachers were packed, people were screaming, cheering us on. That gives you all the energy you need."
3 golds and a silver. Not bad, Natacha Dupuis of Gatineau. Not bad. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/InvictusGamesToronto?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#InvictusGamesToronto</a> <a href="https://t.co/JVhN8Liu8M">pic.twitter.com/JVhN8Liu8M</a>
—@OttawaMorningThe next day she took home a silver in the indoor rowing one-minute sprint, her four-medal total bettering the two gold and a bronze she won last year at the event for injured and sick military veterans.
Dupuis, who's living with post-traumatic stress disorder, said competitors didn't bond over their injures so much as they did over how they're managing to overcome them.
"When the race is about to start, it's everybody on their own. But before and after I've made many, many friends within my team, and with every single other country," she said.
"I have a friend I can call a lifelong friend from Georgia. I've met someone from Afghanistan who had a translator, we had a great conversation … it is special because that's where I got injured," Dupuis said.
"I know the cost the Afghan army and police have paid so to see them be part of our event in Canada was very special."
Dupuis said she got the chance to give Invictus Games founder Prince Harry a Team Canada coin and to personally thank him for the positive impact the games have on her and the other competitors.
