Félix Dolci

Félix Dolci (born 5 May 2002) is a Canadian male artistic gymnast. He has been a member of the Canadian national team since 2017.[2]

Félix Dolci
Félix Dolci at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics
Personal information
Country represented Canada
Born (2002-05-05) 5 May 2002
Saint-Eustache, Quebec, Canada
Height162 cm (5 ft 4 in)[1]
Weight53 kg (117 lb)[1]
DisciplineMen's artistic gymnastics
ClubLaval Excellence
Head coach(es)Adrian Balan
Medal record
Representing  Canada
Men's artistic gymnastics
Junior World Championships
2019 GyőrRings
2019 GyőrFloor Exercise
Youth Olympic Games
2018 Buenos AiresRings
FIG World Cup
Event 1st 2nd 3rd
World Challenge Cup 1 1 2
Total 1 1 2

Early life

Dolci was born in Saint-Eustache, Québec in 2002.[3] He started gymnastics at the age of 6 at Laval Excellence, a gym in Laval, Québec. His first competition was in 2009 and, up to this day, has won over 200 medals and awards, including sports merits and other honors.[2] His mother suggested he try gymnastics, mainly as a way to release his energy as sports such as hockey and soccer failed to adequately do that. Dolci speaks both French and English as he resides in the province of Québec.[4] Dolci is coached by Adrian Balan and trains 30 hours a week while he managing his time with high school in Montréal[3]

Junior career

2018

Dolci during the still rings apparatus final at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics where he was winning the silver medal.

Dolci suffered a shoulder injury at the start of 2018 which made it difficult to do high bar, pommel horse, and parallel bars. Because of this, he was not able to compete his best at the Élite Canada competition in February and ended up in fourth place in the all-around.[5] Dolci recovered and in April he went to the Pacific Rim Championships in Medellin, Colombia.[6] He placed 2nd as a team, 2nd on rings, 4th on parallel bars, and 8th on high bar.[2] He then moved on to the Canadian Championships held in Waterloo, Ontario and placed 1st on all-around, floor, vault, and high bar; 2nd on rings; 3rd on parallel bars; and 4th on pommel horse. Dolci's second international competition of the year came in June at the Junior Pan American Gymnastics Championships in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he won gold on rings and bronze in all-around, floor, high bar, and as a team.[7] In October, Dolci was back in Buenos Aires for the Youth Olympic Games. He placed 2nd on rings, 6th on floor, 7th on vault, 8th on high bar, and 9th in the all-around.[8] His silver made him the first Canadian gymnast to win a medal at the Youth Olympics.[3] He rounded out the year with the Austrian Future Cup in Linz, Austria in November.[9] He dominated the competition, placing first on every event (including team and all-around) except high bar, where he received the bronze medal.[2]

Dolci winning the gold medal on still rings at the 2019 Junior World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.

2019

Dolci started 2019 off in February with the Canada Games in Red Deer, Alberta. Competing in the junior competition, he won gold in all-around, high bar, vault, and floor; silver on rings and as the Québec team; and finished in 8th on pommel horse.[3] This achievement made him the most decorated athlete in the Canada winter games history for a single year.[10][3] Dolci then went to University of Calgary International Cup (UCIC) in Calgary, Alberta in March.[11] He placed 1st on pommel horse, rings, and parallel bars, and got 6th on high bar.[2] In May, he went to the Canadian Championships in Ottawa, Ontario. There he received the gold medal in all events excluding vault and pommel horse where he placed 2nd and 4th, respectively.[3]

Dolci during the floor exercise apparatus final at the 2019 Junior World Artistic Gymnastics Championships

Junior World Gymnastics Championships

At the end of June, Dolci went to Győr, Hungary to compete in the 1st Junior World Gymnastics Championships. The first day of competition was the qualification for the event finals, team final, and all-around final in one.[12] Along with Ioannis Chronopoulos and Evgeny Siminiuc, Dolci helped Canada place fifth as a team with a combined total of 158.563, just over 0.6 behind 3rd place Italy. Since only the top 2 scores on each event counted, so Dolci contributed on every event except pommel horse.[12] His all-around score was not quite enough though, as he received a 79.731 which was around 0.5 behind the bronze medalist, Ukraine's Illia Kovtun.[12] Dolci qualified for 2 event finals: floor (in third) and rings (in second).[13] He also qualified in first on vault with a score of 14.533, but only competed one vault so he wasn't part of the final since 2 separate vaults were needed to qualify. Dolci finished 2nd in the floor final with a 14.000, only 0.166 behind South Korea's Ryu Sung-hyun. In the same day, he went on to the rings final with a 13.600, winning the event by 0.1 ahead of silver medalist Diogo Soares of Brazil.[12] In both of the finals that Dolci was part of, he had the highest execution scores out of all of the 8 gymnasts part of the final.[12]

Senior career

2020/1

In 2020, Dolci was about to start his senior career. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, all gymnastics facilities where closed in Canada so that he had to spend four months in home training. Due to strict travel restrictions, Dolci was not allowed to compete in any international competition until the 2021 FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Cup series, including the 2020 Summer Olympics. He competed at the World Cup in Koper, Slovenia, winning two bronze medals on vault and horizontal bar.[14] Just a few days later, Dolci could win gold on floor exercise and silver on horizontal bar at the World Cup in Mersin, Turkey.[15][16] At that time, Dolci is in a pre-university programm at CEGEP.

References

  1. "Participant: Félix Dolci". Canada Games 2019. Retrieved October 25, 2019.
  2. "Félix Dolci | Gymnastics Canada". www.gymcan.org. Retrieved June 30, 2019.
  3. "Félix Dolci, Canadian gymnast - Biblio RPL Ltée". www.bibliorpl.com. Retrieved June 30, 2019.
  4. "DOLCI Félix". www.gymnastics.sport. Retrieved June 30, 2019.
  5. Lamarre, Sylvain (February 15, 2018). "William Émard et Félix Dolci impressionnent à Élite Canada". Courrier Laval (in Canadian French). Retrieved June 30, 2019.
  6. en:2018_Pacific_Rim_Gymnastics_Championships, oldid 859289628
  7. en:2018_Junior_Pan_American_Artistic_Gymnastics_Championships, oldid 890011627
  8. en:Gymnastics_at_the_2018_Summer_Youth_Olympics, oldid 897717658
  9. "Future-Cup". www.future-cup.at. Retrieved June 30, 2019.
  10. rdnews@socastdigital.com. "Quebec gymnast becomes most-decorated Canada Winter Games athlete". rdnewsnow.com. Retrieved October 10, 2021.
  11. "News | Gymnastics Canada". www.gymcan.org. Retrieved June 30, 2019.
  12. en:2019_Junior_World_Artistic_Gymnastics_Championships, oldid 904182873
  13. "USA finishes seventh in team final at 2019 Junior World Championships". USA Gymnastics. Retrieved June 30, 2019.
  14. "Ten Different Countries Golden In Koper, Slovenia, The First International Competition Post Tokyo Olympics". International Gymnast Magazine Online. September 5, 2021. Retrieved October 10, 2021.
  15. "Three golds for Hungary at final World Challenge Cup of the season". gymnastics.sport. Retrieved October 10, 2021.
  16. "Canada's Felix Dolci: 'I know what I want and how to get there'". International Gymnast Magazine Online. October 3, 2021. Retrieved October 10, 2021.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.