“This gold medal, I celebrated it for a week”

Many of them, in tennis, football or basketball point out the heaviness of their schedule. A small affair next to a life as an international volleyball player. Since May 28, the Blues have infused the League of Nations and the Olympics, 25 official meetings; and here they are already on the bridge for the Euro. First match for them on Friday against Slovakia (in Tallinn, Estonia). What earn Earvin Ngapeth messages from athletes crossed in Tokyo, “handball players in particular” on the mode “you have already taken, it’s crazy”.

And again, the troop crowned Olympic champion on August 7 was able to negotiate an additional week of respite. Back on August 22 instead of 15. And something new under the sun with the enthronement of Bernardo Rezende, Brazilian coaching icon, after the successful decade signed by Laurent Tillie. “The training dynamic is very different from what we are used to doing, it quickly put us back in because there is the desire to discover”, emits the blaster of the Blues, so precious in the campaign of Japan.

The strongest moment in Tokyo

We’ve all known each other for a while, it’s a gold medal that we went looking for as a family. There was Laurent’s last (Tillie) too. So on the thrill side, it exceeded all the previous adventures. The strongest moment, for me, is on the podium. We see the staff in front of us, Laurent in tears. A super beautiful thing but also the end of something. Impossible to hold back the tears. Otherwise, I was disgusted to miss the party in the locker room, taken by a doping control. But hey, since there was no champagne, it was less serious.

Read also – In Tokyo, the apotheosis of French volleyball

His most beautiful gesture

On the match point in the final of Euro 2015. I don’t really know how to qualify this gesture (sort of back-to-the-net reverse smash), even if it has become a form of signing. I was told about it in the depths of Tatarstan. That year, we often did it in training in Modena with Bruno (the team’s passer and son of the new coach), just for fun. So that it ended up coming out in the league, instinctively, before the climax at the Euro.

The most arduous journey

For the 2015 World League. Departure from Paris to arrive in Australia on a Tuesday. We play Friday, Saturday and Sunday on site. Departure the next day to play in Brazil, then return to France immediately. A few stops along the way but also a bunch of miles on the map. We all have Gold!

The closest athlete

Teddy Tamgho (ex-world record holder in the indoor triple jump). We have distant family in common, due to our Cameroonian origins, and we have followed each other for a long time. Like me he is in rap. He came to join me in the studio, we discuss the songs.

“

The celebration of the European title had been not bad too, but shorter

“

The most inspiring competition

For music? In competition, you are still focused. And then I have trouble sleeping texts with a teammate in the bedroom. But I have never written as much as I did last season, with the Covid. Seven months in Russia, alone, without wife or children. You think about a lot of things. The sound engineer, to whom I sent my models, ended up telling me to change the mode: everything was imbued with melancholy.

The most unlikely rescue

Quarter-final of Euro 2015. Attack of the Serbian sharp, Kévin Le Roux defends, the ball goes behind the field, I will look for it avoiding the collector. The guys are rebuilding, our block deviates, it starts again on me coming back from the stands, I defend again; then a third time with a horizontal dive. We still lose the point behind.

The most beautiful fiesta

I just got out of it! I celebrated this gold medal for a week. It started in the Olympic village, then the Trocadéro, a Fédé party and then a club getaway. Which? I had drunk too much to remember it. Then we joined our relatives, not seen for a very long time. And so I continued with them. The celebration of the European title was also not bad, but shorter. After a meal in the VIP Room, organized by the president, we had our evening out of sight. The Paris-Poitiers at 7:16 am, I got into it without going back to bed.

The craziest blue

Julien Lyneel. Two sons touching each other, and bam! the guy can jump. I remember an internship in the Czech Republic, where there was really nothing to do. His big game at the hotel was to take the map of the other rooms and drop, say, surprises.

His biggest spat

Hard, there are too many! I’ll say the one with Radostin Stoychev (his coach in Modena, 2017-2018). We couldn’t see each other. The spark came at a time when I was injured, I was doing medical care at home. He complained to my little brother, who was on the team, that I was not in the gym. The next day, at eight o’clock, I arrived in his office and it left in peanuts. I wanted to do battle [Il rit]. We caught each other by the collar, it was hot. I played my departure clause because he had a three-year contract.

His biggest regret

The semi-final of Euro 2019, lost against Serbia in Bercy. If we played it ten times, we would win it eight times. I still haven’t digested. In addition, Slovenia in the final, it would have been largely taken. Shortly after, we find the Serbs in Berlin to attack the Olympic qualifying tournament. There are absences, we are in the hard. In a video session, in the afternoon, we watch the half-half of Bercy. Absolute silence in the room. We come out with the fangs touching the ground. We hit them 3-0 and we hit the road to Tokyo.