And to think that last year, he was relegated to the B team after a shoulder injury! The resident of Stade Clermontois Archerie (26 years old), nicknamed “Chichi” by his coaches and partner of archer Lisa Barbelin in life, approaches his second Olympic Games with great ambitions of a medal. Hoping to go even further than the prediction of his grandfather Gino when he started out in archery. Confidences.
Are you feeling more and more in the Paris 2024 mood?
Yes, absolutely, we feel that it is coming, that the excitement is increasing as we get closer to the start of the Games. It is great to be able to take advantage of this opportunity to promote our sport and the athletes who participate in it.
How will you fill your days between now and July 25, the first day of qualifying before the playoffs starting on the 28th?
By a lot of training again, almost only specific to archery. We are no longer in an approach of technical improvement but more in an approach of preparing to perform in all conditions by leaving our comfort zone: this is what is planned until the Games with also a small moment of confrontation with the Indian team in about ten days to allow us to gauge our level and work on the necessary intensity. At the Olympics, the matches happen very quickly, there are not many arrows so we have to be very impactful right away. Then, we enter the athletes’ village on July 19 with training that begins on the Esplanade des Invalides site the same day to begin to acclimatize to the place.
Is this the culmination of a long preparation?
The last few months have gone by very quickly. We started the first competition at the beginning of March and now it’s already the beginning of July: I feel like I blinked and everything happened in one go. Before, on the contrary, there was a very long period from September to January-February because there was a lot of work, a lot of arrows shot, up to 600 per day. It was a very intense period in training. And now, we are in the final stretch for the Games: we had very good results in the last competitions, the title of European team champion, 2nd place in the last World Cup round, my 4th place individually in the 1st World Cup round in Shanghai, the European team record. There are really a lot of markers that tell us that we are ready, that the preparation has been good and that we will be able to shine at the Games in a few weeks. In any case, I feel ready like never before.
With what objectives?
Clearly, my goal from the start was not this selection for the Games but a gold medal in Paris. As a team, we have every chance: we are ready at all levels, in terms of relationships and sportingly speaking. We have shown that we can produce great performances. We will have to align everything on D-Day but with the public at our side, almost 8,000 people supporting us in this majestic place that is the Esplanade des Invalides – I think no archer has ever shot in front of so many spectators – it will make the small difference needed in the decisive moments. And I am not putting aside the individual event: it is a little more complicated to reach the final because there are 64 of us on the starting line. But in Shanghai, there were almost 200 of us and I managed to climb to 4th place. After that, the Games are an extraordinary competition with sometimes unpredictable scenarios.
You experienced the 2020 Olympic Games held in Tokyo in 2021, you are almost 3 years older, that obviously counts from a sporting and mental point of view.
Yes, I have had quite a few experiences since then. The Tokyo Olympics, held without an audience in a very special atmosphere, allowed me to really understand what the Olympics were and the demands they require to hope to win a medal. It allowed me to put words and feelings on this event. I also went through a complicated year last year: following an injury at the end of the 2022 season to the tendons in my right shoulder which was caused by the major technical changes put in place with the arrival of Mr. Oh (Editor’s note: the South Korean Oh Seon-Tek became head coach of the French team in February 2022), I was no longer selected for the A team. I experienced a moment at my lowest which allowed me to come back today at my highest, enriched by all these experiences. I used this experience as something positive, I took a step back, I focused on my professional training, preparing for my degree in materials engineering at Polytech-Sorbonne, I took more time to move forward on that, I also took part in an indoor World Cup circuit, bringing back a medal at each stage. It was a really different year, in terms of organization and objectives, but just as profitable because I used it positively to come back stronger. It was difficult, I won’t hide it from you: not being selected after many years in the A team, it was a bit weird, from one day to the next, to no longer be anyone from the federation’s point of view because you’re no longer in the team, it was very difficult to hear and to have this slightly hidden side once you’re no longer really in the game. It allows you to realize a lot of things and to approach the rest of your career from a different angle. It allowed me to bounce back and achieve performances that I had not achieved until then. I used it as a springboard to jump even higher and return as quickly as possible to this team. It was the year of the last chance to participate in the Olympics again.
What does participating in the Games represent in this context?
It’s the culmination of my career, and winning a medal would really be the apotheosis of my entire journey in archery since I started: it’s been a dream of mine since I was little and having managed to put all these things in place and experience them the way I wanted them to, it would be truly incredible.
When do you first remember the Olympics?
In fact, when I started archery at the age of 11 in Picardy, my grandfather Gino, who is no longer with us today, talked to me about the Olympic Games: from my first competitions, he told me that he was sure that I would go to the Olympic Games and that he would watch me on TV. Those few words were really a revelation for me. Today, I am very proud to have already participated and to have achieved this first dream in Tokyo but I am still a little hungry (he was eliminated from the start) and I want to bring home a medal to continue writing this beautiful story. I also remember watching the London Games in 2012 during a family meal at my grandmother’s and we followed the archery events with Romain Girouille in particular, who is now the national coach for the men. My grandfather is no longer here unfortunately, nor is my dad, who passed away in December 2019, but my grandmother Janine is still here and with my mother, my sister, my brother, my aunt and my cousins, they will all be there to support me.
Interview by Sylvain Lartaud
2024-07-05 06:03:57
#experience
