BURNERS STORY
Staying Champion
Joaquim Fontaine
A World Champion discovering that reaching the top doesn't mean you've finished growing.
Reaching the top changes the challenge. The question is no longer whether you can get there, but how you continue to grow once you have.
Getting there
Quim and I started working together in 2009.
Over the years that followed, there were European titles, World Championship medals and an increasingly sophisticated understanding of performance.
Then, in 2017, Quim became World Champion.
It was something he'd spent years working towards.
But reaching the top didn't finish the journey.
A different challenge
Success changes things.
The athlete who is trying to become World Champion has a very obvious destination. Once you've achieved it, the questions become different.
How do you keep developing when what you've been doing already works?
What do you change — and what do you protect?
How do you stay curious when you already know you can be the best in the world?
And how does performance fit when life beyond the sport becomes increasingly important?
Quim continued competing at the highest level, taking World Championship silver in 2019 and European silver in 2021.
But the interesting part wasn't simply that he continued winning medals.
He continued looking for ways to evolve.
Staying curious
One of the things that has always characterised Quim is his willingness to ask questions.
Success didn't remove that.
Our conversations continued to change as his experience grew. Increasingly, coaching wasn't about supplying answers. It was about two people examining performance, questioning assumptions and looking for the small things that might still make a difference.
Because staying at the top isn't about endlessly repeating what made you successful.
Sometimes it's about having enough confidence in what you know to remain curious about what you don't.