• Adrien Gallot is from Nice, he is 16 years old, is in high school.

    He has just won two gold medals in the French indoor flying championship.

  • During the tests, he and his partners had to make artistic figures and repeat them as quickly as possible, without fail.

  • Passionate since he was 6 years old, Adrien intends to make it his profession and reach the World Cup or other international competitions.

When he introduces himself, he forgets to say it. Adrien Gallot indicates that he is from Nice, that he is a high school student in Valdeblore. But he fails to mention that he has just won two French indoor freefall titles. A gold medal in "dynamic 2 ways", with two teammates, and another in "dynamic 4 ways", with four, with whom he had never flown and where his training comes down to 15 minutes before the event. . In "the tunnel", which is 14 m high and 4.5 m in diameter, with his teams, he had to distinguish himself through acrobatic and speed events. Three figures are required and must be performed as quickly as possible. All with air blown at 250 km / h.

At 16, Adrien was the youngest in his category, the only minor, for these championships which took place in Lyon at the beginning of October.

For him, his age has its advantages as well as its disadvantages.

“To explain the figures to me, the coaches couldn't go into the tunnel with me when I started.

But when I was a kid, it allowed me to think less about the movements and repeat exactly what I saw.

"

Already a champion at 12

His very first flight, he did it at 6 years old. “I wanted to take up this sport when my mother gave my father a parachute jump,” he recalls. Too young to go to the sky, he decides to go into the wind tunnel. At the age of 9, he travels to the Paris region once a month to practice “relative flight”, another discipline of flat wind tunnel flight. Three years later, he became champion of France and decided to take off towards the dynamic. To continue to develop his skills, and "especially because it was cheaper", he joined coach Dmitrii Lednev in Russia. He was then 12 years old.

One of the peculiarities of this sport is its price.

Even if the discipline is part of the French Parachuting Federation (FFP), only private rooms have enough to train enthusiasts.

The parents of Nice then invested in their child "thousands of euros".

“One hour in France is 550 euros.

With an additional coach, it is between 650 and 800 euros, specifies Adrien's father, Michel.

It was cheaper to go to St. Petersburg every month.

"A strategy which finally bears fruit since in 2018, it was" detected "by the FFP and entered the Hope pole.

The next objective: "Participation in a world cup"

"With the federation paying for the hours of training, we just have to pay a coach," says Michel. It is also with the latter, Eliot Pothet, that he won the gold medal in Lyon during the French championships, his usual teammate Lucas Colin being absent. Together, they created "The Eaglets" and came 4th in the last French championships in March 2020.

“With this competition, I really saw my room for improvement. I was proud to see that I could be at the level of the greatest. But that doesn't make me feel any different. The goal now is to participate in a World Cup or other international events. Like the Olympics? "In 2018, the federation campaigned to be a guest sport for the 2024 Olympics in Paris," says the young man. In the end, it was breakdance that was chosen. "We have not abandoned this idea and we are preparing formats that could be Olympic". It is with this in mind that he will be in Poitiers at the end of November for a new competition.

Until then, he will continue to juggle between the air and the dry land, including his first class. Despite the medals, his parents attach great importance to him pursuing higher education to secure his future. But the champion is already sure of himself for his future job. “I'll be either in the wind tunnel or in the sky. I will continue as an athlete as long as I can and then I will pass on my knowledge and my experiences. The high school student "does not count his hours" when it comes to his sport. "I have already done sessions where I flew six hours a day for a week to give lessons," says the Niçois.

In the air, he's "now 101 parachute jumps."

He recognizes that it is not the same thing, that "it is more technical".

He adds: “I am aware that there are more risks but that is why I am very careful.

Already because I want to succeed but also because it is the basis of safety.

A state of mind that reassures his father, also passionate.

“All the people he has met in his career recognize his positivism.

He's talented but he keeps his feet on the ground, that's important ”.

Another victory for his parents.

Did you see ?

VIDEO.

Red Bull Air race in Cannes: We did loops with an aerial acrobat (and we didn't even throw up)

Nice

Adrien Gallot, 12 years old and already a parachuting champion

  • Skydiving

  • Sport

  • Nice