Former Canadian artistic swimming coach Julie Sauve of Montreal, Quebec passed away on Tuesday according to Radio Canada. She was 67 years old.
Sauve was initially named a coach for the Synchro Canada National Program starting in 1982. In addition to her regular national team duties, she was a coach at the Club Aquatique Montreal Olympique for 31 years.
In recent years Sauve had been the swimming consultant coach for the Singapore National Artistic Swimming Team since 2017. She also previously worked with the Brazilian synchronized swimming program.
Sauve was best known as the head coach for Canadian Olympic gold medalist Sylvie Frechette of Montreal, Quebec. Frechette won the gold medal in women’s solo synchronized swimming at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona.
Sauve also guided sisters Penny and Vicky Vilagos of Brampton, Ontario to a silver medal in women’s duet at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. What made the Vilagos’s achievement so remarkable is that they retired from synchronized swimming initially in 1984 after not making the Canadian Olympic team in Los Angeles, and then decided to come out of retirement in 1990.
Sauve was also the coach of the Canadian synchronized swimming team that won silver at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. The Canadian team comprised of Frechette, Lisa Alexander of Toronto, Ontario, Janice Bremner of Burlington, Ontario, Karen Clark of Montreal, Quebec, Karen Fonteyne of Calgary, Alberta, Valerie Hould of Riviere-du-Loup, Quebec, Katarzyna Kulesza of Laval, Quebec, Christine Larsen of Coquitlam, British Columbia, Cari Read of Edmonton, Alberta and Erin Woodley of Mississauga, Ontario. Sauve was also inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2006 and the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame in 2012.
