Tokyo (AFP)

Numbers, colors, a hammer almost in the skin.

Associated since 2015, Quentin Bigot and his trainer Pierre-Jean Vazel have two extreme sensitivities, whose complex alchemy could lead the thrower to a first Olympic medal on Wednesday.

"When I read a number, I perceive a color. I have trouble naming the colors, it doesn't come naturally, I associate them with sensations. If a bus passes, its color makes a number appear."

Pierre-Jean Vazel is a synaesthete.

Through a neurological phenomenon, he associates numbers with his senses.

And the Breton loves numbers.

True "geek" of athletics, this former amateur statistician blackened hundreds of data books at the time of the races recorded on VHS tapes, before turning into a sprint coach (Ronald Pognon, Christine Arron), a time in China, then to support Quentin Bigot for six years.

- "Solar system" -

In training in Metz, lists of figures parade in front of this tireless analyst.

Then the sensations and the colors surge.

"I have to abstract myself from the outside world, create a wall of protection, like all synaesthetes. I had to conform to the jargon of the discipline, I can't say how I feel, it's unintelligible."

Quentin Bigot during the final of the French Championships, in Albi, September 12, 2020 Lionel BONAVENTURE AFP / Archives

On the other side of the net, in the throwing cage, Quentin Bigot has developed hyper sensitivity to the hammer, his chain, his weight, his 7.26 kg that he has sent waltzing tens of thousands of times, until at 79.70 m, his record set this year.

When it turns on itself, it evolves in its universe, parallel.

"Imagine, there is what I do, what I feel, what he sees and what he feels ... And you have to make a mishmash of all that," he said.

And dissect, again, to advance the reigning vice-world champion, who is one of the favorites on the Olympic podium in Tokyo, in a discipline with an unsuspected degree of finesse for the neophyte.

“In the hammer the technical aspect is perhaps even more present than elsewhere, for a throw that lasts only between 2.5 and 3 seconds. We develop an incredible speed. But I do not do one with the hammer. It takes a path, a force, a speed. We can compare that to dancing. And we get closer to the solar system, with a force of attraction ", image Bigot.

This little sphere which turns and which he has to put into orbit, he sees it "as a different force, my opposite. The objective is to give it as much speed as possible, I am always in opposition with it."

- "A whole book" -

And sometimes a little miracle occurs.

Quentin Bigot during the World Championships in Doha, October 2, 2019 Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV AFP / Archives

"Throwing it happens that all the forces are balanced, these are very rare throws, it has to happen at the Games!"

To bring Quentin Bigot close to this perfection, Pierre-Jean Vazel worked hard, he who had never taught the discipline before.

Books, biomechanics, geometry, more numbers.

"Hammer analysis is very complicated. Benchmarks were set in the 1960s. I researched these visual points, which are necessary to be effective. You can write an entire book on one go."

"You have to identify the key points which are different for each pitcher. This is the intervention of style. Quentin is very clean."

In qualifying on Monday in Tokyo, Quentin Bigot cleared the obstacle without problem.

In the final, he aims for the symbolic distance of 80 meters, the mark of great throwers.

This number "8", Pierre-Jean Vazel perceives it in red.

"If I see red in the final, that will be a good sign," he smiles.

© 2021 AFP