“It’s a star that we placed in the distance like that and we wanted to believe it. ” When Matthieu Androdias and Hugo Boucheron decided to join forces in 2015, the two rowers dreamed of Olympus, but knew the difficult ascent. On Wednesday July 28, the duo of the French pair of sculls completed the last few meters to the top, climbing to the Olympic podium. Winners at the end of a breathless duel with the Dutch crew, the French bring back the third Olympic title of the Blues at the Tokyo Games.
“It’s our worst race since Sunday, smiled the perfectionist Androdias, civil engineer. But we made up for it with envy. “ Making their own the maxim “A final is not played but won”, the French ignored two “shovels” – when we do not manage to get the oar out of the water – which could have sealed them off. “An Olympic final is played above all in the head, expressed Tuesday the national technical director of rowing, Sébastien Vieilledent. The differences are minimal, and the difference is in the management of the stake, when it starts to hurt very physically. The boats that want it the most make the difference. “ Its rowers have followed the message of the 2004 Olympic champion to the letter in their category.
Having started well but caught up with a first error, the French competed in a breathless race, holding onto a pocket handkerchief with the Dutch and Chinese pairs. After a second error, while the Dutch crew Twellaar-Broenink took the opportunity to come back to their height, the Blues gave their all: “It was not nice, but we throw ten potatoes from space, and we don’t even know if we are in front”, breaths Androdias. With a time of 6 minutes 33 hundredths (new Olympic record), they are ahead of the Dutch by 20 hundredths and the Chinese Liu-Zhang by 3 seconds 30.
??? OLYMPIC CHAMPIONS !! The French pair Hugo Boucheron and Matthieu Androdias won gold, beating… https://t.co/GjlxmmqKdA
“It’s an incredible revenge, we experienced a lot of disappointment and suffering in our results at the past Olympiad, and we have to believe that we have learned from the experience, savored Matthieu Androdias a few minutes after the race as his partner tried to catch his breath in the final effort. We got up each time, and went looking for more, more, more. ” If rowing is a sport of straights and bodies of water, the course of the pair in recent years is much more sinuous.
Stronger than distance, Covid-19 and toxoplasmosis
“It is because they have gone through certain trials that they are here today and even manage to pass a dummy shovel in the last 200 meters,” insists Alexis Besançon, coach of the men’s team. This kind of event really unites a duo. ” In detail, the duo faced distance, Covid-19 and even toxoplasmosis. In 2019, while the two men are reigning world champions and are preparing to compete in the qualifying race for the Tokyo Olympics, Hugo Boucheron falls ill. “He was very upset, he had a fever and no strength at all, and rowing is complicated, remembers the coach. Matthieu had to work extra hard on this race, but nothing would have been possible if Hugo had completely given up. “ Laborious, painful but obtained, the qualification of the two men was savored.
To achieve their ends, to become Olympic champions together, Matthieu Androdias joined his rowing comrade in Lyon in 2019, which allowed the pair to multiply joint training. “Between twenty and twenty-five hours per week, without the extras such as physical, mental or recovery preparation”, reveals their coach. A time interrupted by the Covid-19 – the two athletes contracted it, without symptoms -, the French couple suffered a final setback during the Lucerne regattas, the last race before the Games. “They finish sixth, and behind is a flawless final preparation”, remark Alexis Besançon, for whom “The work carried out for five years, with big periods of doubt and frustration, injuries, the Covid-19, a lot of missed competitions” led his flock to consecration.
“It takes faith to get up every morning to go coal, smiles Matthieu Androdias. At the start, we had no major title, the Olympic title was very far from us. And then this star came closer. ” First European champions, then world champions, in 2018, they are now Olympic champions. “We are very close friends in life, which has allowed us, despite all the setbacks we have experienced together, to get up and seek a little higher”, exhibits Boucheron. Arrived in Tokyo assuming that “Not getting on the podium would be a failure”, Hugo Boucheron and Matthieu Androdias fulfilled their mission. Sixth in the Rio Olympics, or last place in the final, the duo took a dazzling revenge. “Five years ago, we weren’t ready, concludes Androdias. Today we were. “