Every Thursday, in its “off-field” section,
20 Minutes
explores new spaces for expressing sport, unexpected, unusual, clever or in full swing.
This week, we are dedicated to crossing Lyon by swimming with fins.
This amazing 8 km race in the Rhône, usually between 6 and 8°C in January, will take place on Sunday (10 am).
235 people are registered for this 41st edition of an event halfway between fierce competition and festive gathering.
Friends of Lyon, don't be surprised if while strolling along the quays of the Rhône on Sunday morning, you discover 235 brave men crossing Lyon by swimming. This is one of the most famous fin races in France, organized by Thalassa Lyon Plongée for the 41st time. On the menu 8 km to cover, from 10 a.m., from the banks of the Cité internationale to those of the Lycée International de Gerland. All in water always between 6 and 8°C, given its historic timing, on the 3rd Sunday of January.
"People always ask us why we don't organize this race in the middle of summer, so that it is more fun and more accessible to everyone," says Renaud Helstroffer, president of Thalassa Lyon Plongée.
But this is precisely where the big challenge and the specificity of our whitewater swimming event lie: to be the only meeting taking place in the middle of town in January, and therefore in water so cold that it requires equipment a combination of 5 or 7 millimeters.
»
Minors banned from racing without a board
Given the climatic constraints, this crossing of Lyon is therefore a bit to swimming what the SaintéLyon (78 km and 2,040 m of D + to cover at night in early December) is to trail running, in the Lyon region. But what is the real sporting requirement of this little-known discipline, when the last participants will complete the race on Sunday in around 2 hours? It is already necessary to distinguish between the two categories proposed, namely swimming with only fins and that with a hydrospeed type support.
"With a board, you only have your legs in the water," explains Stéphane Dufour of Thalassa Lyon Plongée.
When we do without it, there is a more extreme side, with regular cases of mild hypothermia, even if there has never been a participant's hospitalization.
This is for example why minors cannot participate in our race without a board.
»
12 rescue boats mobilized
In addition to a medical certificate, each participant opting for the crawl-tuba version must also be licensed with a "water" federation (diving, swimming, triathlon), which significantly limits the number of participants (the record is of 423 in 2020 for the 40th anniversary of the event).
A choice “for safety” assumed by Renaud Helstroffer: “On the SaintéLyon, when a rider is too tired, he just has to stop on the side, there you can't risk the slightest drowning”.
80 people are mobilized every winter in this direction during the 2 hours of racing, including 12 rescue boats.
Laboratory technician at Clermont University Hospital, Nadine Racat (44) will take part in her 8th crossing of Lyon on a monofin on Sunday, “swimming dolphin-style”.
You have to count at least a year of training to prepare for such a race.
Someone who has not set foot in the water since August would, for example, put themselves in danger by registering in Lyon.
You have to gradually get your body used to descending into waters at 15, 10 and then 8°C.
»
A training session in a lake at 2°C to prepare as well as possible
This Clermontoise, used to "in the middle of the peloton", squarely prepared herself last weekend by swimming about thirty minutes with friends in Lake Aydat (Puy-de-Dôme), with its water at 2° vs. "Despite the gloves, slippers and overalls, the whole body felt cold," she says. There was ice on part of the lake. But that way, we'll be comfortable in the Rhône, while our friends from the South are generally in trouble when they arrive in Lyon. »
The best performances vary greatly from one year to the next, an unusual current having allowed a record at 35 minutes on one edition, while Catherine Garcin won in January 2020 in 1h01 in hydrospeed.
If there is no professional athlete in the world of whitewater swimming in France, this 39-year-old sportswoman trains three times a week at the oceanaute club in Courbevoie (Hauts-de-Seine), in addition to cycling and running.
A galette and a bottle of Beaujolais as swimming companions
“People take us a bit for crazy to go swimming in such cold water, but it's our sport, smiles the multiple French champion in the discipline. Swimming with fins can be quite painful at first, but with practice anyone can hope to complete such a race. Especially since everyone is not playing for the win, some are mainly there for the atmosphere and the disguises. »
Because more than the SaintéLyon, this crossing of Lyon by swimming has the appearance of a Marathon du Médoc or Beaujolais, between “extreme competition and leisure”.
“We got into the habit of coming to the race enjoying a galette des rois or a good bottle of Beaujolais on our board for 2 hours,” smiles François Rispal, president of the Beaujolais underwater club.
Like what, there is not necessarily a dimension of "sporting achievement" here, except for the head of the race, which turns at more than 8 km / h.
In 2020, the oldest
finisher
(with board) was 77 years old.
“In the Rhône, we mainly see scooters at the bottom of the water!
»
Abandonments are not very frequent, and generally linked to the loss of a fin or cramps.
The biggest scare around this event, during the first 40 editions, took place in January 2020. water to save them," says Renaud Helstroffer.
It was obviously him who had to be saved, and it ended well.
»
Our off-road file
This ultimate episode of folklore that can surround the crossing of Lyon by swimming does not conceal a tactical dimension in the discipline.
“At the level of the bridges, you have to manage to find yourself in the current of acceleration and not in the eddies which could block us, indicates Nadine Racat.
It's really a sliding sport, thanks to which you can see catfish or crayfish in some races.
Well, in the Rhône, we mainly see scooters at the bottom of the water!
It's still more than just diving into the Pacific to observe some manta rays, isn't it?
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