Family ties a theme in Canadian world champion Laurent Dubreuil's speed skating career

Laurent Dubreuil still chuckles recounting how he once told his mother she didn't know much about speed skating.

The cheeky youngster was born after parents Robert and Ariane raced in the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, and he wasn't yet old enough to know that.

"My mom was tying up my skates when I was a kid and she was telling me something about what I should do on ice," Dubreuil recalled.

"I told her 'You don't even know how to skate mom, like what are you talking about?' She just started laughing and one of the other parents was tying up his kid's skate and said 'No, no, your mom knows how to skate. She skates really fast."'

Dubreuil says his parents didn't talk a lot about their own speed skating exploits, so it took a few years for him to realize they were Olympians.

Robert raced short-track as a demonstration sport in Calgary before competing in long-track four years later in Albertville, France.

Ariane raced five long-track events in Calgary and was pregnant with Laurent as a spectator in Albertville.

"It did take a while for me to realize my parents had been world-class skaters," Dubreuil said.

"Them having achieved their own dreams having gone to the Olympics, world championships, having won international medals, they didn't try to live through me. They never put pressure on me, but whenever I would need advice, they would be there for me.

"Sometimes you see kids having a lot of pressure put on by their parents, but that was really not the story of my life. It was completely the opposite.

"They would never give me more than I needed or I wanted, but always as much as I needed."

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