Last summer, Nouria Newman feasted in the Verdon gorges. – Ciaran Heurteau / Red Bull Content Pool
- Every Thursday, in its “off-field” section, 20 minutes explores new spaces of expression of sport, unexpected, unusual, clever or in full swing.
- This week, we are focusing on the thrilling career of Nouria Newman, a 29-year-old Savoy kayaker and Red Bull athlete.
- Vice-world champion in slalom in 2013, she does not regret having taken an extreme turn by tackling incredible projects freeride, as in Iceland last October.
“It’s going fast, you slide, you are quiet, it’s great. »In a funny INA archive dating from June 2004, we can discover a 12 year old child delighted to participate, among adults, in the first kayak gatheringfreestyle of “Hawaii on the Rhône”. Namely an impressive wave located under the bridge of the northern ring road of Lyon. “She was already going for charcoal with an astonishing determination,” remembers David Arnaud, a former professional kayaker. This wave was super intimidating for everyone. Many were roughed up in it, but she didn’t really have any apprehension. “
She is Nouria Newman, and 17 years later, David Arnaud is the director of the last video project of this Red Bull athlete, a dizzying extreme kayaking session in Iceland, uploaded last week. For 20 minutes, we see her tame falls from 12 to 22 meters, in dire climatic conditions, in the middle of October. “The images are already enormous, and I know that they reduce the true dimension of the rollers of these falls,” indicates Anthony Colin, his trainer for ten years at the La Plagne kayak club. The word extreme is not there for nothing when we see Nouria’s risk-taking, it’s in her DNA. “
A college student also at the top in alpine skiing and cross-country
The connection between the native of Chambéry (Savoie) and kayaking began at the age of 5. “When I was little, I remember I felt like I was dealing with a big toy, a kind of giant Playmobil,” she smiles. Anthony Colin was quickly marked by “his determination” and “his understanding of living water”, while numerous camping sessions around the Isère river sharpened “his culture of sport very early on. outdoor “. In college, the teenager is already such a complete athlete that she is one of the best slalom skiers in Haute-Tarentaise, while being the UNSS French cross-country champion.
It is all the same the French kayaking pole that the young Savoyarde integrates in Toulouse then in Pau, in parallel with a validated diploma in political science (journalism option), while integrating the senior French team in 2010. Already junior world champion in kayak freestyle in 2009, Nouria Newman approached the consecration in 2013, at just 22 years old, by becoming vice-champion of the world in slalom in Prague. The Rio 2016 Olympics seem to be reaching out to him.
“In my greatest pride, there is never any competition”
But a big shoulder injury in 2015, as well as more disappointing results in slalom, deprived her of the Olympics and pushed her to question her ambitions. “In 2013, I thought that getting on the box and seeing a man in a suit put a medal around my neck would change my life,” she says. But nothing changed and it no longer suited me to have a schedule dictated by the stages of the World Cup and the courses. »Her world championship titles were finally obtained in extreme kayaking. And even there, the person has a very vague memory of the years (2013 and 2017) of these two supreme coronations. Quite simply because they don’t mean that much to him.
In my pride, there is never a competition. My expeditions in complex rapids are ultimately less accessible, with a higher level of requirements. Out of the question for me to exchange what I’m doing at the moment for a place at the Tokyo Olympics. I am much more fulfilled with high river kayaking than I was with the French team. “
“His films are emotional rollercoasters”
“She was starting to get bored in slalom,” confirms Anthony Colin. She needed an escape, this space of freedom that is the freeride, to go play in the waves. »With Red Bull for seven years, Nouria Newman travels the world, from New Zealand to Ecuador, via Patagonia (Chile), Wyoming (United States) and a solo expedition of 375 km on three rivers in Ladakh (India), which almost killed her in 2018. “I was lucky, I got sucked under the rocks and my accident could have been much worse,” she commented briefly today.
Director of The Ladakh Project, David Arnaud looks back on this strong sequence in the career of the 29-year-old kayaker: “We then see her cry, all alone in front of this GoPro which becomes a private diary. It’s freezing to discover her at this point at the bottom of the hole, and her films are also emotional rollercoasters. Nouria brings nuance and sincerity in an environment where Americans systematically make a high five on camera, even when they have blood coming out of their mouths. “
“We’re not crazy, we’re trying to find the right line”
A sincerity which also explains the success of the videos of the young athlete, which regularly exceed 500,000 views on the web. His recent Icelandic adventure allows the general public to discover his meticulous research work upstream of the descents. Besides, how can the kayaker really master the perilous two seconds of a fall of about twenty meters?
“This part is not often shown in our sport,” explains Nouria Newman. People have the impression that we are swinging in the rapids like that, as if we were in a barrel. But we’re not crazy, we’re trying to find the right line. It’s a bit like a puzzle. The whole technical part, which allows me to determine which support to put on at a particular moment, appeals to me much more than the pure adrenaline of a fall. The whole body works to impact the position of the boat. In the 1990s, there was a part of chance, but if you don’t want to be in great pain, you position yourself as well as possible and you make sure you don’t depend on chance. “
“If we always had to do what is recommended …”
As surprising as it may seem, the one who now lives between Tignes and Val d’Isère (Savoie) was more injured during her life as a slalomer than as a freerider. “We have a sport that forgives a lot, until the moment when it no longer forgives,” said the person concerned. We hurt ourselves very little, at worst we break our noses or cut our fingers. But there can directly be a much more serious sanction, with a risk of death. “Like her very big fear in India, Nouria Newman has learned to live with this ultimate danger.
Of course, it is better not to be alone because it is a discipline in which we ensure each other’s safety. But sometimes you want to face yourself, your fears. If we were to always do what is recommended, I don’t know if we would do much, and it is even more true at the moment. In rock climbing, no one is going to tell Alex Honnold that what he’s doing alone is too dangerous. “
“Nouria is the manager of her own athletic career”
Just like the famous american climber, Nouria Newman transcends her discipline. “Technically, she outclasses everyone with her background as a competitor in slalom,” reveals David Arnaud. Freestyle, river expeditions, falls jumps, she is at the top of her sport in all conditions, and I don’t know anyone in the world, men and women alike, who does the same at such a high level in kayaking. Nouria is unique, especially as she is really into the do it yourself, most often bringing back his own images of his adventures, with GoPro and drone. “
Her former coach Anthony Colin sums it up: “Where great athletes often need three or four people to surround them, Nouria is the manager of her own athletic career. This level of organization and autonomy is impressive, because believe me, she is not in a 4 star hotel before her jumps. »No, Nouria Newman is fueled by road trips wild animals with stove and tent, as when following the mountaineer
Tiphaine Duperier on the second part of his expedition to Iceland. Decidedly full of nuances, she even suggests: “Isn’t gymnastics ultimately a sport as extreme as mine, when you see a somersault done over a beam?” “.