Emile Amoros (foreground) and Lucas Rual.

-

@sailing energy

  • At the start of the year,

    20 Minutes

     presents those who will make the news in 2021 thanks to their associative action, their sports performance, their entrepreneurial spirit or their creativity.

  • Emile Amoros and Lucas Tual, both 24 years old and licensed in Loire-Atlantique, have a great chance of medals at the Olympic Games next summer in Tokyo in the Australian single scull category.

  • The two men, adversaries when they were young, are very different, but very complementary on the water.

Minots, they were adversaries on the water.

Today, at 25, Emile Amoros and Lucas Rual represent a chance for a medal for the Tokyo Olympics in 49er, a class of one-design light dinghy with two crew members, also known as an Australian skiff.

The first lives in Pornic and is licensed to the club of the town.

The second lives in Muzillac, near Vannes, and is a resident of the APCC Voile de Pornichet.

The two have been inseparable since 2013, the year in which they teamed up and they became two consecutive world champions in 29er (another class of sailboat).

The beginning of a sporting and human story of a duo of very different personalities.

Emile, the teammate, acts more on feeling and attaches more importance to relationships.

Lucas, the coxswain, is more introverted, more Cartesian, less talkative.

Emile Amoros and Lucas Rual, inseparable duo.

- @Louis Vialle

“We are completely different, but our complementarity is ultra-efficient, says Emile.

We don't try to be the same, we tried, but we didn't succeed.

The faults of one are outweighed by the qualities of the other, and vice versa.

Emile supervises the speed, the technique of the boat.

“We're still on a tightrope.

How to play with this limit, this thread on which we are to go as quickly as possible?

"Lucas manages all tactical aspects," the analysis of the water and the opponents ".

“It's a real strength to be complementary at this point, observes Lucas, whose partner (Julie Bossard) practices the same discipline.

This complementarity increases the overall level of our boat.

There is always respect, but we can be in contradiction.

The tone sometimes rises… ”This is where coach Emmanuel Dyen, a 41-year-old Savoyard, 10th in Beijing and 6th in London in an Australian single scull, comes in.

“I am the third person, a little the peacemaker in the event of disagreements.

"Dissension synonymous according to the coach of" a degree of requirement "in line with the very high level.

Gaining weight, an obsession!

“On the water, they pull themselves up.

Each sublimates the other.

They might not be the two strongest per se, but they communicate so well and complement each other so well that the duo perform well.

»So much so that in December 2019, the Amoros-Rual boat, the youngest of the four French crews, snatched seventh place out of a hundred participants in New Zealand.

A decisive ranking to be chosen as an Olympic boat one month later by the various French juries.

"It is not a surprise to find them here, and it is far from being a hold-up", estimates Emmanuel Dyen, also trainer of the various French crews.

The Loire duo have seven months ahead of them to prepare for the Olympics.

A period that calls for a colossal personal investment.

First on the physical level.

On the big day, "we should both ideally weigh 165-166 kg", explains Emile.

A

sine qua non

condition

for gaining in aerodynamics on the boat.

With the help of a physical trainer, the two men spend a lot of time lifting heavy loads in the gym to break fibers and increase their mass.

Gaining weight has almost become an obsession for these two average builders, 1.80 m for Emile and 1.70 m for Lucas.

"It's not funny, it's even tiring", breathes Emile.

“It's ungrateful,” Lucas corroborates.

We have to take fat that we transform into muscle afterwards.

"

A former GIGN for mental preparation

In the face, it is also necessary to be damn resistant for these sportsmen, who have the statute of military, they are recently members of the Battalion of Joinville.

Emile joined the Army, Lucas, the Navy.

“Private Amoros” and “Marin Rual” benefit from the advice of a mental trainer unlike any other.

His name: Eric Blondeau, who also works with Top 14 rugby clubs or the Scottish XV.

This former GIGN helps them manage stress and not get complicated with planned or unforeseen situations.

Emile Amoros: “At certain times in the competition, we have to remain surgical without the pressure affecting our mental and physical capacities.

A medal can be played on a last round.

»And the color in the last seconds ...

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