At the Marina of Marseilles,
Sails and wings as far as the eye can see in the harbor of Marseille, where the test event takes place until Sunday, the first major rehearsal of the sailing events of the next Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Including those of Lucie Belbeoch and Nicolas Goyard and Lauriane Nolot and Axel Mazella, the French representatives of the brand new disciplines present for the next Olympics: foilboarding (IQFoil), men’s and women’s and kite foil, men’s and women’s.
Lucie Belbeoch, from Brest, was a substitute at the last Tokyo Olympics, in 2021, with her windsurfing board, but she did not have a foil at the time. A great novelty for these next Olympic Games, which “changes everything”, according to the young windsurfer.
Arms race
“Already the technical aspect, it’s not at all the same way of working at the level of the board. Mechanically it has nothing to do. At the tactical level too, the strategy is completely different because we go twice as fast, so the choices must also be made twice as fast. In terms of mental commitment it’s different, we are one meter above the water, it goes fast, it cuts, there are more injuries and falls than before, “she lists. coming out of the water after somewhat disappointing results on Tuesday.
Above all, the discipline has evolved enormously since its appearance three years ago, and the “arms race” has not escaped the athletes who will bring their own equipment for the next Olympics. “To the naked eye we all have the same material, but the finishes are not the same. The carbon fiber, the hand-sewn sails, in the end you feel a lot of difference, which means you have to invest a lot, test the equipment, choose it, adjust it, resell it, it’s very time-consuming. But to avoid drifts, it is still very regulated, ”says Lucie Belbeoch.
“A permanent exploration”
Beyond the equipment, and the impressive foils that protrude from the boards aligned on the sand, the navigation techniques are also evolving very quickly, as Nicolas Goyard, Lucie’s male counterpart, explains. “We will observe what others are doing, test, to see if it suits us because we all have different characteristics. What will be good for such and such will not necessarily be so for the other, so it is a permanent exploration, ”he explains. And the feelings? “It’s hard to make a comparison. It goes faster than before, it flies over water so it’s piloting, feeling and anticipation to optimize all this with masses of water and air that move all the time . It’s technical and it slides hard so it’s exhilarating, ”says the native of Hyères, who finished two series in the lead on Tuesday.
From “parking tips” to “optimizing performance”
Axel Mazella, will participate in his first Olympic Games next year. Not that he was not qualified for Tokyo, but quite simply because kite foiling was not an Olympic discipline in 2021. It is now for these 2024 Paris Olympics, and the native of Toulon now passes more time in the weight room, as evidenced by his broad shoulders.
“Before, I would say that we were a sport of enthusiasts where everyone exchanged a lot, we gave each other tips on the car park. Since it happened at the Olympics, there is a lot more professionalism, we also realized that the size was important, we all started on a weight gain. We will train in the weight room five times a week, we have a physical trainer, a mental trainer, a coach on the water for technique. Nothing is left to chance, we try to optimize performance, ”lists the one who finished second twice and once first in his series, Tuesday afternoon.
“Survival reflexes”
And as much to say that with gusts at more than 30 knots, things move. “Sometimes it was tense, we were going at 80km/h being next to each other, so you really have to have a strong heart. You also have to manage to unhook the brain and ”edge” without thinking, but at the same time think about safety. So these are survival reflexes that come out so much you are excited and you want to win. You feel that you are at the limit, you have to play while being very careful, ”he underlines. Like this Swedish kiter, whose wing got caught in that of a competitor before jumping more than 10 meters and landing suddenly in the water.
The arrival of the discipline at the Olympics has brought a lot of professionalism to the discipline, but also many more practitioners. The races are now sold out and are done on qualification. Axel Mazella also carries the weight of a nation on his shoulders, since only one representative per country will participate in the Olympic Games next season. As in foilboarding, France is part of the top of the basket even if the other nations are gradually catching up.
medal goal
For both disciplines, the athletes are separated during series during which they participate in a slalom, and in a marathon (which counts double) for windsurfing, in order to establish a classification before the final phases. The first, for windsurfing, and the first and the second, for kite, are directly qualified for the final, while the others participate in quarter-finals, or directly in semi-finals, according to their ranking. A little on the model of the final stages of the Top 14 rugby, to sum up. But for each discipline, the points scored throughout the week are taken into account for the final ranking.
A little complicated to understand at first, but the objective of the French delegation is clear: aim for a medal in foilboard and kitefoil as well. Which would not hurt to get closer to the (too) ambitious goal of 80 medals for France next summer.