Benoît Huot

Benoit Huot (born January 24 1984) is a Canadian Paralympic swimmer of the 21st century, who has won six gold medals for Canada, primarily in the freestyle and butterfly strokes.

Hailing from Longueuil, Quebec, Huot was born with club feet, started swimming competitively at age 10 at the CAMO Natation club, where he is trained by Benoit Lebrun. In the beginning he competed alongside able-bodied swimmers and competed at two Quebec Games, earning silver in 1997.

Benoit Huot made his international debut in 1998 as a member of Canada's team at the International Paralympic Committee world championships, where he won two gold and four silver medals. He added three more gold and three silver medals at the 2000 Paralympics and eight medals at the 2002 IPC World Championships.

In 2003, Huot was named the male athlete of the year with a disability by the International Commonwealth Federation.

In 2004, Huot grabbed five gold medals, one silver medal and three world records at the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens.

In 2005, Huot won six golds at the Disability Sport England Swimming Championships. He then went on to take a gold and a silver at the inaugural Paralympic World Cup in Manchester in events that were swum just 15 minutes apart. This lead the "Swimming World Magazine" to award him the World Disabled Swimmer of the Year award.

External links

* [http://www.realchampions.ca/athletes/benswim Benoit Huot on Real Champions]