After the Tokyo Olympic Games, the French, quadruple European champion, decided to go and train in Texas. She competes in the Worlds in Liverpool, from Saturday, with Paris 2024 in line with a sighting.
by
that summer 2021 seems far away. This time when Mélanie de Jesus Dos Santos had lost a smile. The French gymnast then came out extremely disappointed with its first Olympic games, in Tokyo. A sixth place in asymmetrical bars as the best result, far from the expectations that rested on his shoulders. Washed, the quadruple European champion had even thought of putting a veil on her career, at only 21 years old (she had 22 in March).
Fourteen months later, it will however be the leader of the tricolor delegation to the world championships in Liverpool (United Kingdom), from October 29 to November 6. The Frenchwoman regained the pleasure of gymnastics thanks to a saving exile in the United States, where she has been training since her return, in May, after a knee injury.
“After the Olympic Games, I needed change, she confides in the world. I did not know if I wanted to continue the gym. I was fed up with my routine in France, and , for my well-being, I had to leave. “” The idea of returning under the same conditions as before to prepare great deadlines weighed him enormously, “explains Kévinn Rabaud, National Technical Director (DTN) of the Federation French gymnastics.
landed at 12 at the France pole in Saint-Etienne from Martinique, Mélanie de Jesus Dos Santos will spend ten years under the leadership of Eric and Monique Hagard. Before crossing the Atlantic and settling in Spring, Texas, where she joined the World Champions Center, the training structure for world legend in the discipline, the American Simone Biles.
“Another look at the gym”
It is also the quadruple Olympic champion who breathed to her coaches the idea of bringing the Frenchwoman to Texas, after a first invitation to participate in a tour, in 2021. Mélanie de Jesus Dos Santos decides quickly to make the trip. “She wanted to know if there was another way of training, another way of doing high level,” says Frenchwoman Cécile Landi, the main coach of the center, with her husband, Laurent.
Thanks to the expatriate couple in the United States since 2004, the Martiniquaise discovered “another look at gymnastics”. The sessions start at 7 a.m., instead of 10 a.m. in Saint-Etienne. “It really changed me,” she laughs. But beyond morning alarm clocks, it is the individualized workload that seduced Mélanie de Jesus Dos Santos. “Training is quite different from those of France, says its coach. The techniques are different, and then, at his age, we teach him not to do too many repetitions for nothing, to favor quality to quantity.”
You have 53.32% of this article to read. The continuation is reserved for subscribers.