Lucille Lessard

Biography

Finishing fifth at the 1975 World Target Championships brought Lucille Lessard high hopes for Montréal 1976 as Canada was preparing to host its first-ever Summer Olympic Games, but she did not make the team. Although she was named to the Canadian team for Moscow 1980, she could not attend due to the Canadian boycott.

Lessard was the only female in the high school archery program when she was first introduced to the sport at 13 by the coach who also worked with the national team. A talented athlete, Lessard also was a swimmer and figure skater once dislocating her shoulder attempting a double flip. Forced to choose one sport, she picked archery.

Lessard’s first national title came as a junior in field archery in 1973 (finished second in the outdoor target event). In 1973, she won the target outdoor junior national title and in 1974, her first senior national title at just 17 (defending it in 1975 and 1980). Lessard was the women’s champion of World Field in 1974, was champion of Americas in 1975, and twice was the Canadian Indoor champion in 1975 and 1976. She ended her competitive career as a five-time national champion and 1983 Pan American Games silver medalist. 

In 1974, Lessard was named top female athlete in Québec and she won the Elaine Tanner Award as Canada’s Junior Athlete of the Year. In 1977, Lessard was inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame and in 1982, the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame.