The Paris 2024 Olympic Games are approaching, and with them, the preparation of Olympic athletes is intensifying month by month, to be ready to collect as many medals as possible from July 26 to August 11, 2024. We've chosen to meet a dozen French athletes, who have already qualified or will be trying to qualify during the final months before the competition, to help you discover their passion and their world! This is your chance to find out more about some of the lesser-known disciplines or those recently added to the Olympic program, and to support the athletes who have touched your heart!
For the third interview in this series, we went to meet 27-year-oldAudrey Adiceom, who spoke to Sortir à Paris about her sport, archery, which she has been practicing since she was 10. Unfortunately, after this interview, she wasn't selected for the Paris 2024 Games, but we wish her all the best for the next Olympics!
Paris 2024: history, practice, athletes, everything about archery at the Olympic Games
The Paris 2024 Olympic Games are an opportunity for the French to discover or to take a closer look at more or less traditional sports. Today, we take a look at archery: its history, where to practice it, our best athletes... [Read more]
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You have to shoot several arrows, at 70 meters, at a 122-centimeter target, and the aim is to hit the 10, i.e. the smallest circle in the middle.
At the Olympics, there will be five different events: individual women's and men's, team women's and men's (made up of three people) and mixed! There will be a qualifying round in which 72 arrows are shot, giving a score out of 720, followed by knockout matches: the first meets the last, the second the penultimate, and so on. And the Olympic champion is the one who wins all his matches!
As host country, France already has three quotas, which means three places for girls and three for boys. So the aim for the French is to be one of those three. We're all training at INSEP, the six best French men and women, and we'll make a final selection in January 2024 to determine four people, who will take part in the World Cup and championships, and at the end of June we'll know who the participants in the Olympic Games will be(Editor's note: Caroline Lopez, Lisa Barbelin, Amélie Cordeau and Victoria Sébastien have been shortlisted to date).
It sounds huge, but there are only a few days left in the end! I know that people my age work and are more or less passionate about their jobs, and I'm passionate about my sport, so it's great to be training for something so big.
We're really lucky, it's going to be wonderful, come and see us because it's going to be on theesplanade des Invalides, and it's going to be great!
The strongest for decades have been the South Koreans, because over there, they've been training like crazy since they were very young, around 6-8 years old.
We talk a bit more about archery already, so that's cool, but we also have more financial means. I'm a computer developer and I'm 100% seconded to do archery all day. If the Games had been elsewhere, maybe we'd have had less help, but here, it's really incredible, if we have a need, we immediately have what we need for our performance.
We're one of those sports where one day we shoot individually and the next day as a team. Here, for example, we're all pretty much friends, and in three months' time, we'll only be four out of six, but that's also the beauty of archery. But that's the beauty of archery. You develop the qualities required for an individual sport, but also as part of a team, so cohesion, mutual aid, discussion, and that works for us because we'rereal friends. So I think that's why there aren't too many worries either, because I'm deeply happy for the others when they succeed and vice-versa.
I started in CM2 at school, and got hooked straight away. Then I did an initiation at a big fair, the Cournon fair in Auvergne, because I grew up there, even though I was born in Levallois-Perret. Since then, I've signed up with the Archers Riomois club, which was right next door to me, and I've raised my level at my own pace. I then entered the high-level structure, just after passing my baccalaureate, so at 18, which is a bit late for archery. People at INSEP often come in at 14-15, and I've been here and on the French team since 2017!
A bit of everything! I was a very hard worker before, but now I'm even harder. Friends: all my greatest friends come from archery, my boyfriend, and I've also shot with my family. These are moments of sharing, of doubt, of stress, of crying sometimes, but also of incredible joy, of surpassing oneself! It's a very repetitive sport, and I hear a lot of people say"oh, that's the kind of sport I wouldn't like to see at the Olympics " or"I'd like to exchange my ticket if I came across archery", but no, actually, come and see us do it, and you'll be making history with us! Imagine, we could be the first Olympic champions since 1992!
I used to do gymnastics when I was little, and I was very inspired by Émilie Le Pennec, who also trained here! I was impressed because it's a sport that matures at a very young age, so she was an Olympic champion at such a young age and I used to watch a lot of reports about her! And in archery, if I had to name one, it would be a girl called Lisa Unruh, who is a double Olympic medallist.
I don't know if pop culture and films have had a positive impact on the number of people taking up archery, but if they have, that's great! I think that when Sébastien Flute became Olympic champion in 1992, there was a huge boom in new riders in our country immediately afterwards. But it's just that now, instead of saying"hey Robin Hood", it's"hey what's up Katniss?" (laughs) so it changes the references a bit!
Since I've been at INSEP, I've trained a lot at the center in Chennevières-sur-Marne (94), which is very big, with lots of targets, and not very far from where I live. At a certain point in my career, it allowed me to get out of the INSEP context and meet other people, to shoot for myself!
If you'd like to discover archery, or take up the sport again, the capital and the Ile-de-France region are full of archery companies throughout the region. So, why not try out this sport, which is accessible to all and requires reflection, relaxation and precision? [Read more]
First of all, go to the FFTA website, where you'll find all the information you need to find a club near you! This sport has the advantage of being suitable for all body types, it's friendly and can be enjoyed with the whole family, including young children!
At the moment, it's to"enjoy the bow"!
I'd like to tell you about theSkin association. With my friend Lisa Barbelin, who's on the French team with me, we had this lovely project last season to do a day with this association, which works to help women and men in remission from cancer. They offer lots of activities and workshops, and are everyday heroes and heroines, so don't hesitate to go and see what they're up to!
I love going to Madame Arthur's when we have the time in our schedule. It's an incredible place, with a show and cabaret opening with drag queens, and then it turns into a nightclub where you can dance till noon to French music, it's a great spot! Otherwise, I live in Champigny-sur-Marne, and there are some lovely little spots on the banks of the Marne, where you can relax and have a picnic!
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Paris 2024: history, practice, athletes, everything about archery at the Olympic Games
Where to go archery in Paris and the Ile-de-France region?
