Original coach and team members gather as Gee-Gees swimming celebrates 50 years
Two key members of the original Gee-Gees swimming teams are eagerly anticipating a team reunion later this month. The upcoming 2022-23 season will mark 50 years since the pool at Montpetit Hall opened, ushering in a varsity swim team.
Fouad Kamal came to uOttawa to help build Montpetit Hall. He arrived in 1970 as a successful and well-respected swimming coach, and stayed at uOttawa as an Associate Professor in the School of Human Kinetics until retiring in 1993.
Dominique Champeau was recruited to uOttawa as a student from her hometown of Montreal, starting her own decades-long involvement with the university and swimming in Ottawa.
After competing on the swim team during its first seasons, including as team captain, she became a staff member at uOttawa in 1975 and made many contributions to the growth of Sports Services and the School of Human Kinetics before her retirement in 2013, including playing a notable role in the history of water polo and artistic swimming at uOttawa.
"They wanted to make the University of Ottawa the centre of swimming research," says Kamal, now 89 years old, remembering how he was lured away from his post at McGill to come to Ottawa and be part of building that vision.
He had the expertise to do it: he was an early adopter of tapering athletes for major competitions, using interval trainings, and ensuring his team had a winter training camp to maintain the training gains made in the fall.
Kamal coached the Gee-Gees until 1975 and had three swimmers win eight total medals at national championships, as well as a silver in the 400 medley relay. It was a high point in Gee-Gees swim team history which has only recently been matched.
Kamal's competitive nature comes out as he proudly recounts the improvements swimmers made during training, rising to the occasion of competitions, underlining his desire to take on the top programs and win.
He still competes: he swam the 400m freestyle at the 2022 Speedo Canadian Masters Swimming Championships and travelled to South Korea for the 2019 World Masters Championships where he placed third in the 200m freestyle, 85 and over category.
After his first season of coaching the Gee-Gees in their new pool, Kamal was named Canada's national team head coach at the FISU Universiade in 1973, guiding the team to a third place finish.
He had won the CIAU championship with McGill in 1971-72, coaching that team part-time and commuting back and forth between Montreal and Ottawa as he worked to put the finishing touches on Montpetit Hall and waited to start up his own program at uOttawa.
When he did take the reins on the new Gee-Gees program, Kamal explains his approach simply: "I treated them as human beings first. Then, they were students. Then, they were athletes: we had to take care of their whole body. Then finally, they were swimmers."
Kamal also crucially arranged for the team to have a "Swimming House" as a designated residence for team members, alongside houses for other varsity programs.
What resulted was a close-knit team which now looks forward to reuniting for a weekend in Ottawa nearly 50 years after they last swam together.
"It's been an emotional process reaching out and finding people," notes Champeau, who has spearheaded the reunion's organization. "There are so many stories and tidbits, and I know it will all come rushing back when we are together."