Gwendal Peizerat:
Accept the dream,
then live the dream

June 5 , 2005

Olympic Gold Medalist in ice dancing, Gwendal Peizerat, is a dreamer. Now, you wouldn’t think a Gold Medalist would have to be a dreamer, but a stern, set-your-goal and achieve it type person.

He is both.

First the dreamer side of Peizerat. “If you don’t accept the dream, you can’t live the dream. To be an Olympic champion, you first have to accept the dream, then live the dream with the Gold Medal around your neck.

He dreamed of winning the Gold Medal, but he lived another dream:
“Getting a standing ovation at the 1999 World Championships in Vancouver was a dream. That is the moment you live for if you’re a skater.”

Peizerat and his partner, Marina Anissina, won Silver at that championship, coming in second to the Russians. “But there were all these people on their feet, applauding, saying we were the best. There were thousands of letters saying we were the best. That was a dream to hold close to your heart.”

Peizerat says to become an Olympic Champion, you have to give, you have to have the energy and give it back to the ice, to the judges and to the crowd.

“It’s something inside of you. I can’t tell you what IT is because I can’t really describe it. But some excellent skaters will never win the medal because they don’t have IT.”

A most interesting insight to that Olympic Medal is how Peizerat approached the competition after he and Anissina had skated, near the beginning.

“I couldn’t go back and just wait to see what happened,” he said. Instead, he pulled up a chair and sat right where all the other ice dancers would have to pass him as they got on the ice.

“I wanted them to know I was still there. I didn’t want them to forget about me. I wanted to be the last person they saw before the took the ice. It was my way of saying, ‘you’ve got to get by me first.’ ”

They didn't get by him Marina. They are Olympic Champions.