When her grandmother gave a pair of rollerblades to Armelle Tisler, when she was only “3 and a half years old”, she probably never imagined that it was going to turn her life upside down. “I don’t really remember!” smiled the young woman. But I know my dad bought himself a pair too. We started together. And we never stopped! »
Almost twenty years later, things are rolling for Armelle Tisler. European champion in 2022 in Roller Street and vice-champion of France the same year in Roller Freestyle Park, she has become one of the hopes of rollerblading. She will be at Fize, the International Festival of Extreme Sports, in Montpellier (Hérault), from Wednesday to Sunday, to try to win its first title on the banks of the Lez. Because rollerblading, Armelle Tisler has it under her skin. Ever since she put on this pair of roller shoes, she has never stopped riding. “At the beginning, it was mainly to share a passion, with my father, remembers the 22-year-old young woman. Between him and me, it turned into a challenge, to know who was going to be the best! We have progressed, progressed…”
“I always had a smile on my rollerblades”
When she was only 6 or 7 years old, she discovered skateparks. Very quickly, she rubs shoulders with her first tricks. “At 8 years old, I was already doing little wedging in the ramps! she laughs. “But I didn’t know at all, at the time, that it was a real discipline, and that there were clubs and competitions, confides Armelle Tisler. Until I was 15, I was alone, in skate parks, with my father. Him, he always knew that I was made for that. He could see that I was having fun, that I was progressing, constantly. And that I always had a smile on my rollerblades. “And he was right: when she was only 15, Armelle Tisler won her first competition, in Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône). “It immediately motivated me to go on to competitions! “recalls the young athlete.
But, when she was still only a teenager, she experienced the other side of the coin, injuries. At 17, she fell, broke both handles and suffered a head trauma. Nothing to stop him. “I thought I was going to get up,” she says. I knew I was playing a pretty dangerous sport. I had three operations, I did rehabilitation. And I went back to rollerblading. It didn’t scare me, for the rest. »
Armelle Tisler does not yet live from her sport. If she has a string of competitions, and her performances have attracted sponsors, she has, for the moment, secured her back, by winning a BTS in nuclear petrochemistry. “Between May and October, there are competitions every weekend,” she explains. If we manage to win them all, we can live off them for six months. Or, at least, get on the podium every time. So it’s not easy! “A trophy, this week, at Fise, to start the season?