A Canadian Sport for families, communities and champions

Hugues is a 2012 Olympian and comes from one of the great Canadian paddling families. Both his parents paddled for Canada on the international stage. His late father Jean Fournel competed at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal and his mother Guylaine raced in Pan American Championships. His older sister Émilie is one of Canada’s top international paddlers and was Hugues’ teammate on the 2012 Canadian Olympic Team.

In pursuit of representing Canada at the Olympic Games in the K2 200, Hugues and his partner Ryan Cochrane won gold at the 2011 Pan American Games, won National Team Trials and posted Canada’s two best K2 results at the 2012 World Cups which included a bronze medal in Poznan, Poland. Hugues and Ryan placed seventh in the Olympic final as the K2 200 metre made its debut on the Olympic programme. The crew is training to reach new speeds and plans to contend for a medal in 2016.