Mathieu Bilodeau

Biography

Mathieu Bilodeau first represented Canada internationally as a triathlete, competing at a Pan American Cup event in 2003. He made his only ITU World Cup appearance in 2006 before competing in the ITU Cross Triathlon World Championships in 2013. Struggling to manage school and triathlon, he decided to just focus on his degree, but a chance encounter with three-time Olympian Janice McCaffrey introduced him to the world of race walking in March 2014, a little over two years before the 2016 Olympic Games.

Within seven months he qualified for the 2015 World Athletics Championships, where he placed 31^st in the 50km race walk, finishing in just over four hours. In March 2016 he posted a personal best time of 3:53:56 to go just under the Olympic entry standard for Rio. In May 2016, he competed in the 20km event at the IAAF World Race Walking Team Championships, winning a historic silver medal for Canada alongside Evan Dunfee, Inaki Gomez and Ben Thorne.

After making his Olympic debut at Rio 2016, where he was unable to finish the 50km race walk, he returned to the World Athletics Championships in 2017. Bilodeau lowered his personal best in the 50km race walk to 3:53:36 in March 2019. Later that year, after being unable to finish the 50km race walk at the Pan Am Games in Lima, Bilodeau recorded his career-best finish at the World Athletics Championships, finishing 14^th in the 50km race walk. In his second Olympic appearance at Tokyo 2020, Bilodeau made it to the finish line of the 50km race walk in 45th place.

A Little More About Mathieu

Getting into the Sport: Grew up watching the Olympics on TV with his father… Has been competing in sport since he was 8, going from swimming to triathlon to running to race walking… Loves the long distances of race walking and spending time on roads around the world… Outside Interests: Coffee and hiking are two big passions but is also racing long distance triathlons professionally… Works full time as a CPA for Deloitte… Earned his degree in Accounting from Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières/SUNY Plattsburgh… Earned his CPA-CMA designation and would like to pursue a Masters in taxation… Odds and Ends: Always washes his sunglasses and has an espresso the morning before a race…Always travels with his French press… Favourite motto: Nothing can stop me…