Born in 1954 in Sherbrooke, Daniel St-Hilaire spent his younger years in Montreal East, in the Tetreauville district. He loved baseball and in 1969, he was noticed by the Montreal Expos Organisation. He participated in an evaluation camp, but he was not selected. Daniel then trained in athletics and broke the Canadian record twice in high jump, in the youth category. He was selected twice for the Junior National Team in 1973-1974. His personal record is 2m 11!

His academic pathway was somewhat uncertain: he first obtained a diploma as an electrician, then one in electronics in the crafting schools of Montreal. He moved on to Cégep Rosemont where he graduated in social sciences. He dreamed of becoming an »Indiana Jones » from the Province of Quebec.

He then spent two years at Palomar College, California, in order to end his athlete’s career and to master the English language. Back in the Province of Quebec, he obtained a bachelor’s degree from McGill University to teach physical education (1981) and a certificate in communications from École Promedia (1991).

Once his career as an athlete was over, he went on to earn several coaching diplomas (NCCP – Canada), IAAF – international)

He also became a speaker and course director for these two organizations. He recruited and trained many champions in sprints and jumps. Several of them went on to participate in various World Championships, Olympic Games and other Great Games.

Among these athletes were Canadians Bruny Surin, Alain Métellus, Kwaku Boating, Ian Lowe, Kimberly Hyacinthe, Philomena Mensah, Jarek Kulesza, Nicolas Macrozonaris, Hank Palmer, Charles Lefrancois, and Watson Nyambek from Malaysia.

In all those years, he sometimes had to defend his athletes or himself before sports tribunals or in court. This once even led to the resignation of the federal minister of sports at the time, a certain Jean Charest (who had called up a judge!)

St-Hilaire was then given a number of nicknames by the media (the maverick, old pain in the neck, the rebel, the shit disturber…)

To defend one’s rights had become taboo in sports. If the term »COMPLOTISTE » had existed back then, no doubt he would have been labeled as such.

After that, he moved out to Monte-Carlo, where he could be called on a short notice to replace coaches in Africa or elsewhere, when they were indisposed in sickness. These replacements led him to live quite a nomadic life for a Quebecer: Haïti, Central African Republic, Mali, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Australia, Malaysia, Borneo, English Guyana, Puerto Rico, Sri Lanka.

He met his future wife during those African missions. A Malian called Aicha. In 1994, Aicha and Daniel got married in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Daniel then agreed to become the head coach of the Malaysian National Team in athletics. Their son, Philippe Abdoulaye, was born in Kajang, in the suburbs of Kuala-Lumpur, in November 1995.

Back in the Province of Quebec in 1998, Daniel took a year off, then decided to resume his coaching career… 17 years passed, then a »political » head hunter convinced him to run for the 2015 Federal Election as a Bloc Québécois candidate in the district of Alfred-Pelland, located in Laval. Come 2018, he discussed with Bernard Gauthier from Citoyens au Pouvoir (CAP) during a radio broadcast in Montreal. When Stéphane Blais was chosen for President of the CAP, he decided to try his run for the Maurice-Richard district, in the Ahuntsic-Cartierville area.

He also participated in a few movies as an extra and as a consultant, including the film »Race » (English version of »10 secondes de liberté »). That movie on the life of Jesse Owens told the story of a young black American sprinter who dared to win 4 gold medals before Adolf Hitler at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. Still in 2018, Daniel became a Quebec ambassador for a new technology, which combined light therapy and relaxation. He created LUMINOSPORT!

Daniel joined the FDPRF in July 2020 as Vice-President. He is highly determined to continue to defend the rights and freedoms of Quebec citizens in a healthy environment.

He finally retired from coaching in August 2020. His activities within the FDPRF disturbed the sports world of Montreal and Quebec. He chose the people over a world of obedience where health measures are based on political interests, not science!

He left the Quebec athletics scene with fond memories of his participation in 5 Olympic Games (1984 Los Angeles, 1988 Seoul, 1996 Atlanta, 2000 Sydney, 2004 Athens)