Luc Bruchet

Biography

Luc Bruchet nearly gave up running due to struggles with injuries, including stress fractures and a strained muscle in his hip, that caused him to miss his entire sophomore season at the University of British Columbia. But he came back strong, enjoying a breakout season in 2013 as he won the 1500m and finished fifth in the 5000m at the North American Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Championships. He had a career highlight that summer, running the 5000m final in front of 40,000 people at the 2013 Summer Universiade in Kazan, Russia. He also finished third at the NAIA Cross-Country Championships, ran in the senior 2013 IAAF World Cross-Country Championships, and won silver in the 1500m representing Team BC at the Canada Summer Games.

In 2014 he finished second in the 5000m at the Canadian Championships after being fourth in 2013. Bruchet’s third-place finish in the 5000m at the 2015 Canadian Championships earned him a spot on the Pan Am Games team. He had another highlight moment in Toronto when he led for a lap during the final 1000m before ultimately finishing eighth. On June 12, 2016 he dropped more than five seconds off his previous personal best, running the 5000m in 13:24.10 to put him under the entry standard for Rio 2016 where he made his Olympic debut.

In 2017, Bruchet won bronze in the 5000m at the Canadian Championships, but his next couple of seasons were disrupted by injuries as he missed all of 2018 and the start of 2019 due to two different stress fractures. When he returned to racing, his finished second in the 10,000m and fourth in the 5000m at the Canadian Championships.

After few race opportunities in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bruchet set a new 5000m personal best when he won the Harry Jerome Track Classic in June 2021 with a time of 13:12.56 to earn his spot at Tokyo 2020. A week later, he won the Canadian title in the 10,000m. 

A Little More About Luc

Getting into the sport: As a child played every sport he could but enjoyed running the most… Running became a focus in high school, although he still played baseball and basketball… Almost quit distance running in grade 8 because it wasn’t the ‘cool’ sport at school, but his mother convinced him to stick with it because she knew he was good at it… Outside Interests: Graduated from the University of British Columbia with a Bachelor of Kinesiology in 2014…