Gwangju (South Korea) (AFP)
His retirement lasted only four months. Returning early this year on his decision to stop his career, Clement Mignon, competing on 100 m Wednesday and Thursday at the World Swimming Championships, surfing on a new approach resolutely turned to pleasure. With success for the moment.
In 2016, Mignon is the tricolor sprinter who goes up: at the Olympic selections, he knows the bar of 48 seconds on 100 m (48.01, remained his personal record since), then at the European Championships, two months away from the Rio Games, he is bronze medalist on the queen distance.
It's after the Olympic season that things get complicated. The following year, he misses the qualification for World-2017. In 2018, he invites himself "ric-rac" with the relay at the European Championships in Glasgow, but the heart is gone. To the point that at the start of the season, the Olympic vice champion of the 4x100 m said stop, at 25 years only.
"During the course of preparation in Chartres, I saw everyone who sharpened, and me, in the middle, I did not even know what I was doing there, remembers Mignon.We saw what it has given in Glasgow it was disgusting I was in the hard, I really did not feel in my place It hurt me to realize that I did not have the level, and the envy, that s 'was dissolved as the slaps I took at each competition.'
- "Too perfect" -
"I ended up blackening, it destroyed me little by little, I got to Chartres and Glasgow to the end, I just wanted to finish this season and get in," he continues.
Back in school, in a computer school in Montpellier, sounds the beginning of his "new life". But, quickly, germinates in his head the idea of diving back. "At first, I left it aside, I went to school, and in mid-November, I made my decision, I stopped the classes, and on the 1st of January, I was back in the water "in Marseille, he runs.
Back, but with a fundamentally different mindset. Less strict and guided by a leitmotiv, which he repeats at will: "take pleasure".
"I try to be the most perfect (possible) during the sessions in the water, but when I'm not there, I allow myself to do what I want, I see friends, I go out, I m "Bursts out," said Mignon, "I'm really getting in. And I do not have that regret I had before, to have that high-level sporting life that made me too perfect."
"I was limiting myself too much the past seasons thinking it would help me in the performance, in fact, it served me more than anything else, I got rid of all the hassle, all the little things that could hurt to the pleasure of training every day, "he continues.
- Less headache -
"He switched: he went from a forced practice to a practice where he takes less head, where he is less school.Today, he practices his sport as he wishes, he is happy, it is the key to success ", summarizes Julien Jacquier, who has been training since his return in early 2019.
In the water, the recipe is paying off much faster than Mignon expected, which had made the Olympics 2020 its goal.
Mid-April at the French Championships, with just over three months of work behind him only, the Marseille sprinter qualified for the 2019 Worlds-2019 by swimming to a level he had not reached since 2016 ( 48.49). And on 50 m, it passes for the first time under 22 seconds (21.93).
"I'm pretty optimistic for these championships, not only does he not have much to lose, but it can be another trigger to make him want to be next year," said Jacquier before the Korean competition week.
His two 100m swim in the position of first runner in the series and final of the 4x100 m Sunday gentlemen go in his direction: 48 sec 26 and 48 sec 25, he has signed the second and third fastest round-trip of his career.
© 2019 AFP