From our special correspondent in Tokyo,
Our guilty pleasure of the Olympics finally visible from the windshield. Team fencing, self-appointed by the sports editorial staff 20 minutes as the most exciting discipline of the Olympic fortnight with its red touch and its green touch. Almost as addicting as winter biathlon, plus the record. The nouba has also started at full speed in women’s foil, with a semifinal anthology won by the Blue against Italy after having counted 12 touches of delay. Homemade know-how deciphered by our future Olympic champions in Tokyo.
The power of looks: “An almost impalpable fluid”
With her saber friends, Cécilia Barder had not seen the light of day against Italy in Rio. “An emotional washing machine, the feeling that the fight lasted three seconds”. But also the memory of these “looks as if possessed.” That’s what hooks me to the relay. When you start to panic, you have doubts, and you glance at the girls and they tell you with their eyes “it’s okay, it’s you, it’s going to be okay”. The way we take each other in the arms, a little tap on the shoulder, this energy is not palpable, it is a fluid ”.
An unstable fluid that must be pampered and preserved, adds Erwan Le Péchoux, captain of the foil team for twenty years. Especially in a period of pandemic, which has cut the calendar with an ax: only a team competition for a year and a half. “Our strength was to work on this collective state of mind every month on the post. There we did not experience this thing. So in recent weeks, we force ourselves to find this mentality. The four of us do team sports, we eat together at the table to talk to each other, to look at each other. I have no doubts about our level, but we need that at home to be efficient ”. Romain Cannone, trained in the USA, agrees. The new Olympic champion in épée returned to France just to experience the thrill of the group. “Here, we experience the team competitions much more intensely, with a tight-knit group, and a core that does not move. We know how to bring the teammate to his best level ”.
The importance of the replacement: “To have the glimmer to change, or not”
Another charming asset of team fencing: being able to change a torchbearer during the assault, with all that this implies of disavowal for the guy who leaves, and pressure for the one who comes back. All in five seconds flat, because afterwards, it’s too late. “In general, it’s something we leave to the coach,” says Barder. He knows the feelings of each one, which can be sublimated or not. You have to be able to bring in a replacement who has not shot for a week ”.
Sometimes, when the group’s chemistry reaches some form of perfection, the selection takes place on its own. “ In the final of the last worlds, Charlotte Lembach, who was titular, goes to see Caroline Quéroli and tells her “You are going to shoot in the final.” There I feel you good, you are strong at the moment. And behind we beat the Russians at home, while they had made 1, 2, and 3 the day before individually. You have to have the sparkle of mind to decide on something like this at that time ”.
The coin doesn’t always fall on the right side, of course. Erwan Le Péchoux has still not digested the lost final in Rio, after a legendary half against the best foil team in the world, aka Italy. “We’re in it, and then Jérémy Cadot, our third torchbearer, takes the water. And there we lack lucidity, we decided to change it while we still lead by five touches. Paul-Tony Helissey comes in, a young inexperienced who is put in a very hard position, and he collapses. We can’t even blame him, but that day, we don’t make the right decision ”.
The fear of the black hole: “Suddenly, the legs freeze”
Those who have never never experienced it are counted in decimals after the comma. The dreaded space craving, the one that makes you lose 10 keys in a row when the whole team imagined you to be more solid than a menhir. Cécilia Barder had her own: an obscure hopeful championship, with hindsight, which at the time was worth all conquests. “One of my big traumas. I was shooting, I had won all my stints of the day, 40-37 in the final for us, I put the first three. And then my legs freeze, as if blocked. It’s a free fall, you lose control. It’s a memory of brutality… and I know very well that it can still happen to me. That’s why we love it ”.
Erwann Le Péchoux loves average, especially since it is rather to be placed in the category without fear or reproach. This time he has a little doubt, he who will discover the role of replacement, at 39: “Until now I have never been concerned about my individual level compared to what I can achieve as a team. But with the pandemic, I have less certainty. I have never felt so good physically, in training I don’t lose a lot of games and I know what I’m worth. Now you put me on the track with pressure and opponents that I haven’t faced in two years, I don’t know. So if I have to start on Italy in the quarter-finals… ”
🤺🇫🇷 They did it! The French women’s foil is guaranteed to have a medal, for the first time since 1984! Long led, Thibus, Blaze and Ranvier overthrew Italy in the semifinals! #Olympic Games # Tokyo2020
► Live Olympics: https://t.co/t3mdRtumdd pic.twitter.com/mqf0fpVFjx
– France tv sport (@francetvsport) July 29, 2021
Bonus track = The role of the finisher: “Unload the others from a weight”
On the photo that will make the A of the Team, on days when it laughs it is often him who detaches himself from the frame. He’s the finisher, and his shoulders weigh a gigaton. He wins, he’s the king of the world, he loses, he’s the one who makes all the friends cry. Erwan Le Péchoux doesn’t like the job, but he has been sticking to it for twenty years: “I realized that I was doing it not too badly and that it relieved the others of a burden. Now, I like it when it ends well, you wind up five keys and everyone hugs you, it’s great. But when you’re in Rio, you think you can come back to the final and you can’t do it, well you’re alone on the track. He’s a bit of a penalty kick taker in football [
Interview réalisée avant France-Suisse, on précise] “.
However, The foil keeper prefers to keep another memory of Brazil. “Not long ago, I learned that we could have lost in the quarter-finals. For me we were ahead and I had a quiet stint to do, but the last time we talked about Rio, my coach at the time let me go: “It was hard but we could have lost against China. You had two delay keys at the last stint ”. That’s it, the role of finisher, that’s it, leaving late or early, who cares. I was never afraid to get on the track last. But it comes a lot from the confidence that others can bring to you ”.