Rennais Willy Sirope won the gold medal in the under 69 kg category in 2019 in Abu Dhabi.

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Willy Sirope

  • Sacred Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion in 2019, Rennais Willy Sirope is preparing to defend his title.

  • Several times postponed due to the health context, the competition should take place in April in the United Arab Emirates.

  • The athlete only thinks of bringing back the gold before leaving the tatami mats.

Between postponements or cancellations of competitions, the Covid-19 epidemic is straining the nerves of high-level athletes.

For almost a year, Willy Sirope has been waiting to know when he will be able to defend his title of world champion in Brazilian jiu-jitsu won in April 2019 in Abu Dhabi.

First scheduled for April 2020 then postponed to November due to the health context, the competition was finally to be held in the coming days in the United Arab Emirates.

"But we learned not long ago that it was still shifted, probably in April," regrets the athlete, 37 years old.

While waiting for the decision of the organizers, Willy Sirope is refining his preparation at the Vivalto Sport center in Saint-Grégoire near Rennes.

The athlete prepares in particular in a "thermo training room" where the thermometer can climb to 42 ° C.

An ideal place to adapt to extreme conditions but also to detoxify a body that is no longer 20 years old.

Willy Sirope has also announced that these world championships would be his last.

“My body tells me that I have to stop,” he says.

Look for the opponent's submission

Sensing the end of his career approaching, the athlete has however kept his motivation intact.

"This will be my last big deadline and I'm only going there to bring back the gold," said the athlete, who arrived late on the tatami mats.

This former soldier did indeed discover Brazilian jiu-jitsu ten years ago, initiated by his brother.

It will not take more for this child from the Paris region to fall addicted to this mixture of wrestling and judo.

“I often compare this sport to a game of chess because you have to control your opponent without hitting him,” he explains.

We will seek the submission of the opponent with a strangely or an arm lock for example ”.

If the discipline, derived from Japanese jiu-jitsu, is still little publicized, it is still starting to be visible thanks to MMA, with fighters using this technique more and more when they are on the ground.

"I think that it can explode in the coming years thanks to the enthusiasm that there is around MMA", hopes Willy Sirope.

The athlete is already preparing for his retraining

By then, the Rennes athlete will have retired with a retraining that is already taking shape in his head.

"I want to put my skills as a high level athlete at the service of companies or local communities," he explains.

Working with young people and transmitting my values ​​to them also interests me.

In any case, I already have many dreams and desires outside the tatami mats ”.

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