Having had the opportunity to meet Marie-José Pérec on several occasions, whether through Team Normandie or the Etoiles du Sport, Loïc Samen finds the speech of the triple Olympic champion “rejuvenating”.
There’s more to life than football! In partnership with the Normandy Region, the editorial staff of FOOT NORMAND has decided, each month, to highlight the athletes of Team Normandy who aim to participate in the Olympic Games in 2024, in Paris. For this new column, focus on the Team Normandy Campus which was held in mid-September at the Normandy Sports Center (CSN) in Houlgate.
Media training workshops, awareness-raising on the rights of an athlete with a specialized lawyer, interventions by great champions, without forgetting moments of cohesion via different disciplines (mountain biking, badminton)… The least we can say is is that the fifty or so athletes present, including the 16 members of Team Normandie, were not bored for a second during the fourth edition of the Campus which was held in mid-September. After an interlude at Cabourg last season; due to the work at the CSN (Centre Sports de Normandie), all these pretty little people have returned to their habits in Houlgate. A gathering with which Les Etoiles du Sport have now been associated for three years. “Except for competition, it’s a meeting that I wouldn’t miss for anything in the world”testifies Loïc Samen.
But before establishing its quarters at the CSN for three days (September 20-22), Team Normandy made a detour to Caen to attend a meeting between Marie-José Pérec and 200 young athletes from the centers of the region. And when the Guadeloupean Gazelle speaks, everyone is attentive. “Listening to great champions like Marie–Jo, it’s refreshing”slips the Sotteville wrestler, his gaze full of admiration. “When you hear him, you realize his work culture. He was a machine. You only want one thing, and that is to take an example. Not having at his time all the modern tools like us today, she explained to us that her gauge to know if she had done a good workout was if she vomited or not”.
“Listening to great athletes like Marie-Jo is refreshing. When you hear her, you realize her work culture”
Loïc Samen
A method, certainly, a little extreme but which has allowed him to build an XXL track record. “What a journey! Three times Olympic champion. It’s simply astonishing”, Loïc Samen almost can’t believe it. Crowned on the track at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, Marie-José Pérec signed a resounding double, 200-400 meters, four years later, in Atlanta. Races that the young man, at the age of 24, was not able to experience live. And for good reason, he was not yet born! “Marie-Jo’s performances made the rounds on social networks”underlines the one who had the chance to exchange on several occasions with the triple gold medalist whether through Team Normandie, the Etoiles du Sport or her status as a resident of Insep (National Institute of Sport, expertise and performance).
Advice that could lead him to the Paris Olympics
For Loïc Samen, the speech of his prestigious elder is also a source of inspiration. Absent from the French delegation for the World Championships in Belgrade, Serbia, in September; the fault, in particular, of a poor performance at a Grand Prix in Germany a few months earlier, the wrestler of Cameroonian origin – again at 100% of his physical means after having been disrupted in his preparation by injuries over the last two years (knee, thumb) – realized that even the greatest champions can experience bad times. “When you have a drop in motivation or you are going through a tough period as was the case for me after my non-selection for the Worlds, it is reassuring to say that almost all athletes have experienced something identical “.
“Marie-Jo reminded us of something important. You will never go far if you don’t know why you are doing it”
Loïc Samen
Following Marie-José Pérec’s intervention in front of the young athletes from the Normandy centers, Loïc Samen also engaged in introspection. “Marie-Jo reminded us of something important. You will never go far if you don’t know why you are doing it. Of course winning is important but there are often deeper reasons that push you to seek strength deep inside you. This thought resonated in my head”confides the one who was born with a foot deformity, called “club foot”, which required numerous operations. “I was very young so I never had the feeling of being disabled even though I was”.
This journey, which has by no means been a long, quiet river, Loïc Samen has transformed into an asset. Today, the member of Team Normandie has “give it”. “I want to prove to myself that I am capable of it, that I can claim Excellence. When I have stopped high-level sport, I want to be able to say to myself that I have reached the maximum of my abilities. Currently, that’s not its”, underlines the No. 1 Frenchman in the -97 kg category who dreams of a medal at the Paris Olympics next summer. A dream which involves two qualifying tournaments starting in April. to get his ticket, he will have to reach the final. Anything but an easy task as the Sotteville wrestler has fallen to 35th place in the world. But Loïc Samen has a secret tip: the precious advice of a certain Marie-José Pérec.
Mountain bike outing, badminton tournament, media training workshops, social networks, sports rights…
Badminton tournament, mountain bike outing, interventions on media training, social networks, the rights of an athlete… Loïc Samen and Team Normandie experienced three intense days during Campus 2023.
Three intense days. This is how we could summarize the Team Normandy Campus, 2023 edition. During these 72 hours at the CSN in Houlgate, the fifty athletes present, also counting those from the Etoiles du Sports, were entitled to several interventions , starting with media training with former TF1 and France Télévisions journalist Nicolas Rossignol. “It’s my favorite workshop. We learn to position ourselves in front of an audience, to structure our words, to use non-verbal language”, details Loïc Samen who, true to form, has blackened pages and pages of his notebook. The members of Team Normandie were also trained in the use of social networks with YouTuber Gonzague Rebois. “A great Campus classic”according to the Sotteville wrestler but essential, today, in the career of a champion in the making. “That’s how we gain visibility. In the event of qualification for the Olympics, or even a medal, we will need to be able to ride the hype that will result from it”. New this year, Team Normandie received awareness of an athlete’s rights from lawyer Baptist Agostini-Croce. “He gave us lots of little advice, things that we, as athletes, don’t particularly know”.
Of course, it would not be a Campus without moments of cohesion around sporting activities. On the program this year: a mountain bike ride with former professional cyclist Yoann Offredo leading the peloton. “When it climbs, when you’re in the mud, when you feel the lactic acids rising, it’s tense”does not hide Loïc Samen. “I would have liked to finish the course without setting foot on the ground but I had to get off my bike to push it”. The member of the French wrestling team largely recovered with racket in hand during a duo badminton tournament. It must be said that the Sottevillais had luck in the draw by teaming up with Arthur Vaugeois. “He did 70% of the job”smiles Loïc Samen. “All he has to do is hold out his arm, flick his wrist… It’s crazy. As a result, we’ve taken over the No. 1 spot in the up-and-down”.
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