This is the first time she returns to her stronghold with her bronze medal around her neck. A party was organized on Saturday October 12 at the Dieuze shooting range, near Sarrebourg, in honor of Olympic individual archery champion Lisa Barbelin. She is the first French woman to receive a title for this discipline. The archer was therefore able to return to the club where it all started: it was here that she shot her first arrows. She entered to the applause of the hundred people present.
“I find it hard to believe it”
“I asked you to bring back a medal, it’s done”asks the mayor of Dieuze, Jérôme Lang. “You should have seen, on August 3, when you played in the Olympic final, the people there were at La Délivrance in Dieuze!“. Indeed, the inhabitants of the town followed the archer’s entire journey: a fan zone had been set up so that they could follow the Olympic final. The speeches followed one another and the archer remains movedas if she was realizing her feat little by little. “Arriving this evening and seeing the stand parking lot packed, having to take a place at the other end to get in, it’s pretty crazy. I find it hard to believe it“ confides the Olympic champion.
Robin Schmidt
However, its notoriety, and the pride of the Dieuzois, are both very real. Once the speeches are over, she is overwhelmed by requests for selfies and autographs. In the room, some don’t know her, and others have seen her grow up, like Frank Verdelet, who was his first coach at the Dieuze shooting club. “I remember a young girl who asked a lot of questions, who was curious. As long as she didn’t understand, she insistedhe remembers. And then there is talent!”
A chocolate target weighing more than 3 kilos
Lisa Barbelin also received, during the evening, a Saulnois ambassador medal from the president of the community of communes, Jérôme End, as well as a Senate medal, offered by Catherine Belrhiti, senator of the Moselle. The mayor of Dieuze, for his part, made the bet gifts “made in Dieuze”. “A chocolate shooting target, 38 centimeters in diameter and 3.6 kg of chocolate”, made by the pastry chef from Dieuze, Didier Arnould. Then, a key to the city, made by a local carpenter, Gilles Somme, who runs the Escaliers Somme store. “It’s an elm key from a Dieuze tree, on which I put the Olympic rings and the town’s coat of arms“, explains the carpenter who finished his work just in time for the party.
Mayor Jérôme Land hopes to hold a party in the same style in 2028, if Lisa Barbelin manages to qualify for the Los Angeles Olympic Games and bring home a medal. “See you in four years!”he tells him.
