- The judokas of the French team have returned to Insep since May 12.
- Among them, Cyrille Maret, bronze medalist in Rio in 2016 and who was to play his qualification for Tokyo in early May.
- He tells 20 Minutes of the difficulties encountered during confinement, in particular that of remaining mobilized without any visibility for the weeks and months to come.
Each week of June, 20 Minutes will give the floor to athletes who should have participated in the Olympic Games in a few weeks. Resumption of training, planning for the coming year, psychological consequences, we will discuss with them all the facets of postponing their Olympic dream. This week, judoka Cyrille Maret and the thousand and one questions that a top athlete can ask himself in a delicate period like this.
Cyrille Maret is a happy sportsman. The judoka, bronze medalist at the Rio Olympic Games in - 100 kg, has found Insep and his friends from the France team for more than three weeks now. After a battery of reassuring physical and medical tests - he had fought in China last December -, he regained his taste for group preparation sessions, even if each one is currently playing in his 5 by 5 meter square. to know if the training with contacts on the mat will be authorized from June 22, for the start of phase 3 of the deconfinement, he tells 20 Minutes the difficulties encountered during this period of forced isolation, and how it was necessary dispel negative thoughts.
How relieved was it for you to be able to resume?
During the confinement, we did a lot of group work, via Zoom. It's good, but it remained virtual, so a little difficult to live, alone in his corner. We took our trouble patiently and from the moment we were able to train again by having real human relationships, it did a lot of good. Afterwards, more personally, I had a somewhat mixed feeling. I was very happy to find the friends, but as a judoka, we want to put on the kimono. We're doing a combat sport, and we're really looking forward to it.
Did you hesitate before coming back to Insep?
Not at all. If I had been told that the kimono would be put on right away, I would surely have thought about it. But there, I had total confidence in what was on offer. Many people fought for the right to return to the Insep. It was important for us to respond present. Not a single athlete said no. We were all afraid of what happened, and being able to come back is a big step forward. We were affected by the situation, like everyone else.
After the resumption yesterday with a good PPG, it's bodybuilding session at @ INSEP_PARIS with @CyrilleMaret to relaunch the machine and keep fit!
I hope that the deconfinement goes well for you? #RestezPrudents pic.twitter.com/YB5CnjmeWl
The psychological gain is greater than the risk, in fact? Do you see it a bit like that?
Yes. But this reflection, it really depends on each one. For me, at 32, this period should not last longer. Because I missed it a lot at first, but then there was a period when I asked myself a lot of questions. You don't know if you're going to be able to start again, you tell yourself that we may have to think about the next. We don't know what! There were negative passages during this confinement. But I couldn't see myself stopping like that, because of a virus. The hardest part was that we had no visibility. For several days there was great uncertainty about the Olympics. Many were affected by the delay. There are surely women who had planned, for example, to have a baby after this deadline, or some who had decided to retire and who will have to wait. Seeing his projects postponed can be difficult psychologically for athletes.
What did you finally emerge from these reflections?
I told myself that I was not a year away. It gives me time to prepare even better. Afterwards, we also heard things about 2021, about the fact that it was not sure either, that the virus would still be there. We still do not control everything, we are in the dark, but there it starts to return to normal. The machine is quietly getting back on the road, soon we will be able, I hope, to resume judo and tell ourselves that this whole period will only be a bad memory. It doesn't seem like much, but after training, yesterday noon [June 2], we sat on the terrace to eat with Guillaume Chaine [another judoka from the French team]. It's typically the kind of thing we used to do, and it does a lot of good.
Do you think that you will need psychological help to remove the confinement and manage the fact of having to start from scratch almost from the perspective of the Olympic Games?
I have already been working with a mental trainer since 2016 [Christian Ramos]. He is someone who comes from rugby, who has touched a lot of sports and who did not know judo before me. He has brought me a lot since the Rio Games. We worked a lot together during the confinement, to manage this delicate period, and today we are trying to put a lot of positive into this one-year lag.
What was this work, concretely?
It was, mainly, to find a meaning in what we were living. It was a delicate period, but there was plenty to find good things in. You just have to know how to look. We wondered together if I was really ready for the Games, if a year more is not better, etc. We worked on it, and there I see that we are starting to resume training, that my strength training is almost equal to when I stopped, and that it is starting to return to normal, even if we must remain cautious about this virus. I'm confident about the period, until we can get back on the carpet.
Do you have to wait impatiently for government announcements for phase 3 [which may allow contact sports again]?
They talked about June 22, yes. From the moment there are dates, even if it is postponed by a few days, that's fine with me. It gives visibility, and that is essential. This is really what has been the hardest to live with. Today we have it, there is a European championship scheduled for November. Our return goes through there, having dates for training, competitions.
How crucial is this visibility for a top athlete?
It's simple, we only work by objectives. Personally, I find it hard to motivate myself to go for 30 minutes or an hour of jogging on Sunday morning if I don't know why. Me, there, Sunday morning I rest because after, until Friday, I will send full pot with two sessions per day. We were in a moment when you had to do sport just to do it, to keep in shape. It is important, of course, but that is not what we look for when we do high performance sport. We need more, concrete objectives, to put conviction into our training and know where we are going. That's why the start of confinement was difficult, because I made my heart go up in my garden while doing a trampoline with my daughter, and I said to myself "but what are you doing?" " I was wondering how long it was going to last, where I was going.
Was it very hard to manage?
Honestly Yes. The job with Christian was to put these sessions forward, to use them to put something concrete. What could I put from this session in a fight, for example. We did a lot of mental imagery. Imagine what we were doing was going to serve me for later. In fact, I had come back strong on my training since the beginning of the year 2020 for the Olympics. I had the prospect of the European championships at the beginning of May, which were decisive for the qualification, so I was really in full swing when the confinement started. The first thing I did was cut three weeks. Completely. I had to do three small sports sessions, no more. I felt that I needed this to mark a clear stop. There it is, in the head we leave for a full season, to go get the qualif 'and be as efficient as possible in a year.
How do you see the prospect of putting on the kimono, of touching an opponent again?
We don't know exactly what we're going to be able to do as a cover. Are we going to have to do judo with a mask at the start? Still complicated to breathe with ... Are we just going to be able to do a little technique, without a fight. It would already be a first step. We, all we want today is to touch a little kimono. We need that (laughs) !
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- Deconfinement
- Coronavirus
- Covid 19
- Insep
- Judo
- Sport