Valentine Ketterer was unable to participate in her regional election because of the coronavirus.
-
Valentine Ketterer
20 Minutes looks
back on the paths of candidates who had to give up the regional Miss France competitions this year.
Valentine Ketterer, Miss Ariège, made the decision not to participate in the election of Miss Midi-Pyrénées after having tested positive for Covid-19.
The election was held on the scheduled day.
"We are going through a health crisis where we cancel everything, we put all our lives on hold, we confine ourselves ... And for a Miss election we let it happen ...", says, thoughtfully, the young woman of 24 years at
20 Minutes
.
They will be 29, Saturday evening at Puy du Fou, to compete for the title of Miss France 2021. But, like every year, there are also those who, for one reason or another, were deprived of the beauty contest.
In recent months, a handful of suitors have had to give up this adventure.
20 Minutes
collected testimonies from two of them.
Friday, Anaëlle Guimbi, candidate for Miss Guadeloupe, forced to leave the competition, due to topless photos against breast cancer "contrary to the values of Miss France" will return to her misadventure.
This Thursday, we relay the testimony of Valentine Ketterer, nurse at the Toulouse University Hospital, tested positive for Covid-19 before the election of Miss Midi-Pyrénées, in which she was unable to take part.
"I told myself that I had nothing to lose"
2020 for Valentine was a bit of a last-ditch contest.
After a first unsuccessful attempt last year to claim the scarf of Miss Toulouse, she had decided to retry the experience on the side of Miss Ariège.
Aged 24, age limit listed in the regulations of the Miss France committee, it was therefore her last attempt to win a title.
“I told myself that I had nothing to lose, I relaunched the adventure.
If it was a failure, so be it, and if it was positive, so much the better!
», She explains to
20 Minutes
.
His lucky star responded.
At the beginning of September, a few days after a closed-door ceremony without the public (sanitary measures required) for the departmental election of Miss Ariège, the Toulouse woman won and was selected for the election of Miss Midi-Pyrénées.
It was during a night on call in Toulouse, where she had been working as a nurse for a year, that Valentine learned about it.
She hastens to go see her manager and her colleagues to be replaced.
For good reason, a busy week awaits him.
“They were so supportive, I wasn't expecting all of that,” she says.
I didn't know how they were going to react but they were really exceptional, they even supported me on the official CHU website.
We are still talking about it today, colleagues ask me what happened, it disturbed them all because they got involved and, in the end, a little for nothing.
"Blame it on the coronavirus which came to play the spoiler.
"I was not eliminated, I withdrew from myself"
On September 4, the eighteen contenders for the title of Miss Midi-Pyrénées leave to spend a three-day weekend in Ariège in order to receive their scarves.
After an express return of two days at home, they meet on Tuesday evening 8 in Mazamet (Tarn) to prepare together for 72 hours the Miss Midi-Pyrénées ceremony scheduled for Friday 11 in the same city.
The regional committee would have asked them beforehand to carry out a screening test for Covid-19.
Valentine, she had made an appointment for a PCR test on Monday 7, "early on".
But during the weekend in Ariège, she realizes that there may have been a misunderstanding and that most of the other competitors have opted for a serological test.
“I was amazed that a [serological] fingertip test was sufficient.
It is not a test at time T, it means that we have antibodies to the virus and that we have been in contact with it, but maybe three months before, ”she explains. .
Contacted, the regional committee Miss France Midi-Pyrénées did not wish to answer the questions of
20 Minutes
.
Valentine however maintained her PCR test.
A few days later, on Friday morning in the rehearsal room and a few hours before the fateful evening, the ax falls: Valentine, asymptomatic, is positive for the coronavirus.
“The first feeling that crossed me was the guilt of telling myself that I had been able to infect people, we had remained in contact with all the girls,” she said.
And then I informed the committee directly because I couldn't hide it.
"As a precaution, the young woman decides to quit the competition:" I was not eliminated, I withdrew from myself.
I was not asked to leave.
"
"I would still make the decision to leave if I was positive"
Following this decision, the Toulouse nurse left the premises very quickly, without having time to inform the other candidates.
Despite this coronavirus case, the ceremony took place.
Understanding, Valentine is pensive all the same.
"We are going through a health crisis where we cancel everything, we put all our lives on hold, we confine ourselves ... And for a miss election we let it happen ..." In the end, it is Emma Arrebot Natou, Miss Toulouse, who wins the Miss Midi-Pyrénées scarf that evening.
She will represent her region on Saturday evening in the national election at Puy du Fou.
Valentine, torn between bitterness and disappointment, takes this experience with philosophy: “I do not retain all the positive, obviously, but it is all the same an adventure to be lived.
It's also about surpassing oneself, I'm happy to have done it.
She congratulates herself on having taken the precaution of leaving the competition.
“I do not regret, if I had to do it again I would invest myself as much.
And I would still make the decision to leave if I was positive about something, ”she says.
"I got rid of my Miss Ariège scarf myself"
Everything could have ended there, but it was without counting on the determination of the Toulouse nurse.
A few weeks after the election of Miss Midi-Pyrénées, in November, Valentine decides to make a clean sweep of the past, and to return her title and her crown.
"I got rid of my Miss Ariège scarf myself because I don't think we had the same values with this committee," she told
20 Minutes
.
I don't see why I would keep her given what happened.
When you have an idea, you have to carry it to the end.
"
In order not to stay on a bad note, she turned to another committee, that of Miss Elegance.
“I've learned that when you set goals in life, you don't get them by snapping your fingers.
I think it is through perseverance, questioning and determination that we get there, ”she explains.
In early December, she won the first runner-up scarf of Miss Elegance Midi-Pyrénées.
At the same time, she continued her nursing profession.
Television
Coronavirus: The Miss France 2021 contest postponed for a week
Television
Miss France 2021: Miss Saint-Martin / Saint-Barthélemy disqualified after an anonymous denunciation
miss France
Toulouse
Television
TF1
Beauty pageant