Mélina Robert-Michon, mother with golden dreams

Ringtone of peplum, and physique of a former centurion, Serge Debié picks up his phone: “Michon?”. The discobolus warns of a few minutes late. “The nanny was talkative”, she will pretend with a smile to her trainer on her arrival at the Parilly stadium, in the suburbs of Lyon.

Under a blazing sun, leggings and blue tank top, Mélina Robert-Michon goes on rounds in the throwing area, before the one kilo discs crash into the thick grass. “We’re starting to have feelings like in competition so it feels good,” she reassures herself.

“I want the length, not the speed, recalls that day Serge, coach of always, who since 1998, made of her a vice junior world champion. Her protege had said that she would stop afterwards. Beijing in 2008. Before postponing the end of my career at each Olympiad … “I have followed until now”, he laughs at the height of his 65 years. “It is she who me. showed the way, “said modestly the one who will retire in the fall.” I’m still just a little club coach with a perhaps a little more elaborate eye on technique. “

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The adopted Lyonnaise, daughter of farmers from Isère, has meanwhile built a track record: European vice-champion, 19 times champion of France, and 4 international medals between 2013 and 2017, including silver in Rio -2016 where she broke her own French record: 66.73 meters.

Now, with all eyes on Tokyo during its two daily workouts during the week, MRM is doing “everything to get this gold medal”. At her first meeting in early June, she made a solid comeback with a throw of 61.39m.

“I like what I am today”

Along with her athletic career, she was also able to realize her desires to start a family with her osteopathic companion. Elyssa was born in 2010 and Enora 3 years ago. “I have sometimes experienced the reflections of people who do not understand that it is possible to have children and come back to your best afterwards,” she recalls.

Other top athletes have returned to competition after giving birth: tennis player Serena Williams, sprinters Allyson Felix or Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce.

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Mélina Robert-Michon has always wanted to tackle this intimate happiness in order to open up the field of possibilities to high-level sportswomen. “My goal is not that all sportswomen have children during their career, just that they have the choice. If they feel that it is the right time, that they can do it without it being the course of the fighter.”

“We have always said that in France throws were of no interest to anyone”

This trajectory now makes Mélina Robert-Michon a serious candidate to become standard bearer of the French delegation in a month, “an honor”. The pitcher applied, after being encouraged by other athletes.

“In Sydney in 2000, I looked at the standard bearer (David Douillet) as someone who came from another planet, of which I was not a part, and I had to wonder if I too could claim to this planet “, in particular because of the confidentiality of its discipline. “We have always said that in France throws were of no interest to anyone,” she says. “But things have happened in 20 years, I like what I am today”, she assumes without false modesty.

Before the decision of the National Olympic Committee, she will line up for the French Elite Championships at the end of June in Angers, the last master stallion before Tokyo.

For the rest, the champion with braided hair already Paris-2024 in a corner of the head. “I was never able to have my whole family at the Games so it would be an opportunity to make them discover my universe a little more. The Games are what marked my career, and to be able to share that with family, this would be exceptional. “

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