INTERVIEW. Aurélien Giraud is aiming for Paris 2024, the skateboarding world champion can’t stop

He is the first Frenchman in the discipline. Aurélien Giraud made skateboarding history by winning the gold medal at the World Street Skateboarding Championships in the United Arab Emirates. A long-term job for the 25-year-old Lyonnais.

He has just inscribed his name in the history of skateboarding. Aurélien Giraud is the first Frenchman to win the gold medal at the street skateboarding world championships. It was February 5 in the United Arab Emirates.

Since he was 5 years old, the Lyonnais has been training relentlessly on the ramps of the Gerland skatepark. A work that proved its worth and launched Aurélien on the professional street circuit, a discipline involving riders performing different tricks in an area reproducing street furniture.

After the Tampa Am in Florida, the Dew Tour in California, the mythical “25 marches de Lyon”, the athlete joined the very first Team France in history for the Olympic Games in Tokyo. He only won a disappointing sixth place there, but consoled himself with a first gold medal at the International Festival of Extreme Sports in Montpellier. Then crowned French champion in Hyères at the end of August 2022, he added a new trophy to his list, that of world champion.

That’s it, you are the king of the skate world. Do you realize?

No, I think I still don’t realize. It’s a lot of years of work, a lot of years of sacrifice and I’m very happy to have come to this today. I started at the age of four so I’ve been skating for twenty good years and I’ve never had such a title. Having it today is the reward for all that hard work.

How long did it take you to pull off the Hard Flip that won you first place?

It depends on several things. It depends on the styles of modules, the difficulty of the figure, the amplitude… there are plenty of criteria that come into play, but it takes years of training.

What made you win over the judges?

I think it was 80% mental and 20% training. It was the amplitude, the speed, the execution and above all the strategy that worked well.

You are the first Frenchman to win a world championship title on this circuit. What does it change ?

I don’t know if that changes much. I hope I won’t be the last anyway. I hope it will help skateboarding in France and that it will push our young people to become nuggets. The young people who arrive are very, very strong and it’s pleasant to see.

Today, skate competition is decried by some. Purists argue that this is not compatible with the strict view of sport. What do you think ?

I still have the same opinion. I have always been a competitor. Everyone has the right to have their own opinion. There are those who prefer to see skateboarding in the street, after that I have always competed like many athletes. It remains an opinion that they have and we respect that. We’re here for the love of skateboarding anyway.

You mobilized for skateboarding in Lyon, when in 2016, the town hall wanted to ban the practice Place Louis Pradel. Seven years later, the spot is known worldwide. What kind of feeling does that give you?

We are very happy that the place is still there today. She was rehabilitated for skateboarding. We thank the town hall for having made this effort and we are very grateful.

During the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, it was the entry of skateboarding into international competition. You finished 6ᵉ. What do you keep as a souvenir?

I had made first qualifying. It is not because we win the qualifications that everything is won. In my head, I was still a bit young. I didn’t have all the maturity yet and I think there was a lot of excitement that came into play. Maybe an excess of personal confidence.

Aurélien Giraud announced it. There is a 95% chance that he will participate in the Paris Games in 2024, to win, who knows, his very first Olympic medal. And he hopes so, in gold!