community
Fitness Factory
L’Usine
By Jennifer Young
hen Dominic Adam and Chris Kalec started chatting over postWOD beers about opening a box together, they didn’t know they were planning the start of an empire. Six years later, team L’Usine CrossFit has earned their third trip to the Reebok CrossFit Games, and Chris and Dom have lent their support, and the L’Usine name, to six more affiliates in Quebec. The name L’Usine, French for “The Factory,” has nearly become a brand of its own. Each member of the L’Usine family is a separate affiliate. “We have partnered up with the amazing head coach of each location,” Dom explains. “We assist with logistics every step of the entire opening process and even more once they open. We pass our knowledge to them to help avoid mistakes and so on.” From oldest to newest, the sister affiliates (with respective head coaches) are L’Usine CrossFit Ottawa in Gatineau (run by David Kalec, Chris’ brother), Boucherville (Vincent Cote), Terrebonne (Olivier Thibert), Repentigny (Francois Tremblay), Taschereau (Maku Ranger), and Sherbrooke (headed by Simon Paquette, 2013 individual Games qualifier). The name is even about to spread overseas to Bucharest (called “Uzina,” in Romanian). Many of the sister affiliates have seen competitive successes of their own,
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“We focus on giving the best experience possible.”
but it is a core group from the Montreal hub that returns to the Games year after year, and CrossFitters across the region recognize that success. “A lot of people have the feeling that we regroup [the most competitive athletes] all under Montreal’s team or banner, which is false,” Dom describes. “I think the strong L’Usine presence and results over the years have pushed some very good hopefuls to come and train in this atmosphere.” Four of this year’s team members have been competing together since 2011: Dom, Patrizio Delli Fraine, Mélaine Petit, and Émilie P feiffer Badoux. Changes to the team include new members Marie-Émilie, the only transplant to L’Usine Montreal, and Dany Roy. Chris Kalec, a member of last year’s team, competed as an individual this year. As for training, the team plan also remains much the same except for one thing: the members have all bulked up (“hopefully all muscle!”) to handle the increasingly heavier loads required at the Games. L’Usine might attract competitive athletes, but you needn’t be one yet to join the L’Usine family. “We treat and train every individual as a future potential Games athlete,” says Dom. “We respect their own limits and goals, [but] people like L’Usine because we treat them as athletes, we drive them, we push them, and ‘reward’ them as such.” The right to be a member of team L’Usine must be earned anew each year.