Until the Paris Games in 2024, the hope of French ping pong tells his story to AFP.

In this fifth episode, she talks about the difficulties of leading a high-level sports career and studies, she who passed the baccalaureate exams before going to Vendée.

"This is my third year at Insep (Institut national du sport, de l'expertise et de la performance, based in Paris, editor's note) and the advantage of being here is to be able to combine studies and sport, that is to say that there are arrangements to lighten our class hours and ensure that we are more efficient", explains the one who hopes to obtain a mention "very good" at the baccalaureate.

"It's a big organization at Insep. We often have DS (supervised homework), DST (work on the table), white baccalaureate … They put us on a lot of white tests to train us", continues Pavade, who opted for specialties "mathematics" and "Sciences and life of the Earth" (SVT) in final class.

"In math, for example, we worked a lot with baccalaureate annals. In the end, when we pass the real test, we are well prepared", explains the player from Saint-Denis Union Sport 93 (Sdus 93).

"As for the sports field, Insep is a big center and everything (sports infrastructure) is next door. To combine these two projects (sport and studies), it is precisely a time saver."

Young table tennis player Prithika Pavade at the Tokyo Olympics, August 2, 2021 JUNG Yeon-je AFP / Archives

"I train six days a week, most often twice a day. Of course, there are times when it's difficult to motivate yourself to work on this or that course. The most difficult times, it's when we leave for a month in competition, in France or abroad. We no longer have daily lessons and sometimes for several days in a row we can't work on our side. It's hard to motivation to pick up the pace. But I have goals in both (sport and studies) so I manage to find the energy for it."

"Late" or "early" revisions

"When I get back to it, I try to do it in an efficient way by watching videos that summarize the lessons. I like to work later or sometimes get up a little earlier, because I have the spirit Fresher."

"I made wishes for universities in order to integrate a license, in life sciences or earth sciences. This will allow me to have a good scientific background and at the same time to spread out the years (to studies) to continue to perform in my sports project which will also be very important, and even a priority in the years to come."

The French Pavade Prithika at the Tokyo Games, August 2, 2021 JUNG Yeon-je AFP / Archives

"(At university) As a top athlete, you don't have the same schedule as normal students. There are one or two half-day lessons a week."

"(After table tennis) I don't know exactly what job I want to do but I would like to work in the environmental sector. I give myself time."

Interview by Ludovic LUPPINO

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