Tokyo Olympics: Jean-Charles Valladont, the archer of the fields
Audio 03:27
Jean-Charles Valladont at the Olympic Games in Rio in 2016. AFP - JEWEL SAMAD
Text by: Christophe Diremszian
8 mins
Olympic archery runner-up in 2016, the 32-year-old Franc-Comtois will go for gold at the Tokyo Games.
Portrait of an atypical sportsman, lover of the great outdoors and an assumed bon vivant.
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He shoots dozens of arrows per training, on a target 70 meters away. Impeccable posture, impassive gaze ... Jean-Charles Valladont tirelessly performs the gestures of a sport which imposed itself very early on in the life of this former kid from a village in the Doubs, in love with nature and the land
.
“
When I was younger I went rock climbing, canoeing, soccer - the worst experience of my life! - until you discover archery, he
says.
I entered a club with a trainer, Pascal de Grandis, who also made me discover everything that revolved around his passion, fishing, hunting ... Sometimes, we trained on Wednesdays until 7pm, and then he would ask us to tell our parents that we were going to have a barbecue on the banks of the Doubs while going to fish for catfish.
This is how I became aware of the very important perks for my success.
"
Work on the mind
Regular contact with nature is an essential component in the balance of this epicurean who came to taste at the high level at INSEP from the age of 17. World and European medals, both individual and team, do not take long to accumulate in his quiver. Jean-Charles Valladont is even a short-lived world number one in 2017. But at the time of pre-Olympic qualifications just before the health crisis, he is only the fourth in the French hierarchy and therefore not selectable.
A doubt and a demotivation that had to be removed to regain his place.
“
We called on a mental trainer, Frédéric Lecomte, with whom we had worked until 2012, who allowed us to change our approach, so that he could redo the work of" cardiac coherence "and management of emotions,
explains Nicolas Rifaut, the coach of the French men's team.
He who was not necessarily a fan and sufficiently rigorous in this register has completely changed gear.
It allowed him to regain his self-confidence, to put protocols in place that allow him to be competitive under stress, and he is starting to benefit from it now.
"
Age of maturity?
Enough to win gold in Japan? After the discovery in Beijing and the first realization in Rio, the experience of the biggest meetings could finally benefit the Franc-Comtois. Even if his friend Jocelyn de Grandis, the son of Jean-Charles Valladont's first trainer, thinks his best years are ahead of him. “
It is not yet the year of maturity,
believes this great figure of French archery, now retired.
He is an accomplished archer, but he still has things to understand. His body begins to evolve, it gets to a point where it needs more work than others to achieve the same result. He still has the physical, intellectual and technical ability to do something very beautiful in Tokyo, a Top 8, a Top 4 and then the final. He has the level, but he still has three years to prove he can go further.
"
Paris 2024, perhaps the ultimate deadline ... Until then, Jean-Charles Valladont will continue to juggle between obligations in the city and the need to relax at home, in Sologne, where he can put into practice his sense of conviviality and his lover of good food who never balks at going to the kitchen. “Cooking
is sharing. I work a lot on feeling. I like dishes such as pie of wild boar, venison ... I also work a lot on hams, sausages or wild boar carbonade. In short, originality, transformed dishes that give you the satisfaction of serving it to your hosts and having a great time.
»
Sologne, adopted land
where he hopes to one day finalize his archery school project to transmit to young people the best of himself and the values that forged him.
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