For Vincent Matheron, the Olympic Games, "it's like the X Games"

• Every Thursday, "20 Minutes" receives an athlete who dreams of a podium in 2024 on his Twitch LCTC show.

  This week, Vincent Matheron is our guest.

• Seventh at the Tokyo Olympics, the 24-year-old French skater should still be part of the Paris Games in 2024.

• For those who know the legendary Tony Hawk well, and who has been injured several times, (big) falls are an integral part of skateboarding.

There are those who grew up playing Tony Hawk's Pro Skater video game.

And then there are those who have crossed the gaming frontier and befriended the legend Tony Hawk himself.

This is the case of Vincent Matheron (24), currently in Dubai to participate in the world skateboarding championships.

The beginning, for him and all skateboarding enthusiasts, of qualifying for the Paris Olympics in 2024.

After a first Olympic experience in Tokyo, the Marseillais, returned to his land after a three-year exile in the United States, hopes to be part of the bowl at Place de la Concorde.

By avoiding, of course, injuries, the daily lot of skateboarders.

He explained all this to us when we received him on our Twitch show,

, Thursday, January 26.

"The Crusaders, you know", precisely, you know well...

Yes, I did the crusaders when I was 17.

It's a bit young for such an injury, but it's part of skateboarding.

Above all, we come back better, and twice as strong.

I went to the Cers (European Center for Sports Rehabilitation) in Capbreton, I did rehabilitation, muscle strengthening and, at 17, it was fine.

I was in rehabilitation with Tom Pagès [freestyle motocross pilot], that motivated me a lot.

And before the last Tokyo Olympics, you were also the victim of another big injury...

A year before the Games, I broke my ankle: a triple malleolar fracture.

I had surgery and had a lot of stuff inside.

Even during the Games, I still had some.

I managed to remove 12 screws, three pins and two plates after the Olympics, but I still have five screws that I will keep for life.

How do you manage to overcome the fear, after coming back from such a big injury?

Injuries, you have to go through that in skateboarding.

Afterwards, I try not to think about it when I

.

Falls can happen at any time and you almost have to break something to skate.

It's as if a boxer said he didn't want to blow his nose, it's not possible.

Danny Way [who notably jumped from a helicopter to descend a ramp] even said that if we hadn't broken all the bones in our body, we weren't a real skateboarder.

Afterwards, with age, you learn to fall.

You grow up with the wounds.

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And that didn't stop you from having a career, even if you don't like that term being used?

When you skate, you will skate all your life, so it's not really a career.

It's just fun.

At the Tokyo Olympics, even if you didn't have a medal, you finished first in Europe.

But, better, you have wedged the Jul sign.

Is it worth all the medals in the world?

It's true, I did

.

Unfortunately, he didn't see it.

So, I will do it again in Paris.

It was to represent the house.

When I'm away from home, that's what makes me think of home.

Marseille is the sun, the sea, the Prado bowl, Jul, the old ones like the FF or IAM, Zinédine [Zidane]… In short, it's home.

You have just moved back to Marseille with a view to the Olympic Games in 2024…

I did three years in the United States, I think I had my time there.

I had to come back home.

I train every day at the Marseille bowl.

This is where I grew up and learned everything.

It's a legendary bowl, all the greatest bowl skaters have been there.

All the old competitions took place there.

And, even thirty years later, you can still find lines that no one has done.

It's an "infinite wave", as Jean-Pierre Collinet, who created this bowl in Marseille, puts it.

This return to basics, there is nothing better to prepare for Paris 2024.

Marseilles

VIDEO.

Notice to skateboarders!

The mythical bowl of Marseille is all beautiful, brand new, very clean

In Paris, for the 2024 Olympics, the bowl will be Place de la Concorde.

But it won't stay...

It is kind of a shame.

In Tokyo, they left him.

This bowl, it was really incredible, very well made, large, spaced out.

There were lots of different lines.

Too bad there wasn't enough time to skate.

It was very fast, because of the Covid-19.

A week, and then there you go.

After participating in the Games, do you feel like an Olympic athlete?

No, I didn't feel anything in particular.

I've always been a skateboarder, so I don't know what that would change with the Games.

I started skateboarding at 4 years old for fun, with my family.

I pretended it was a competition like the X Games, but with five rings, where I represented the country.

Me, I try to show that we are not athletes, but skateboarders and to show the good side of this sport to the general public.

I think every other skateboarder does that too.

What will be the holy grail?

The 2024 Olympics in Paris, at home, or the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, "The Mecca" of skateboarding?

For me, a French skateboarder, it's Paris 2024. Above all, a hundred years after the last Summer Olympics in France, it's going to do something good.

Afterwards, in Los Angeles, it will be extraordinary too.

This is where skateboarding comes from, there is a real surf-skate culture, and there will be a lot more skaters attending the event.

But I prefer France to the United States.

You were talking about surfing, you do it too…

It's part of skateboarding too.

When I'm there, in the morning we go surfing, and in the afternoon we go surfing.

I'm not the only one doing this.

Between the two disciplines, there are not many things that are alike, beyond balance.

Surfing is really very hard, in the act of paddling, finding the right spot.

There is a lot of observation, far from what you can find in skateboarding.

What does skateboarding training look like?

With skateboarding evolving more and more, training is above all about learning how to land well or being the best prepared to receive a shock to avoid injury and be able to skate as much and as long as possible.

To avoid injuries, we do some physical preparation.

And me, with all the injuries I've had, I have to do some to keep myself in shape, otherwise everything goes away and I can't skate anymore.

And if I can't skate anymore, I'm not happy.

So, I do a lot of physical therapy, two to three times a week, I go to the gym a bit and, in Marseille, I go for a bike ride.

How's the figure creation system going?

At night, we can think of certain tricks, or even when playing video games like

or

.

With games like that, you think of different tricks.

The idea also comes from watching old skate videos.

It can motivate you and give you new ideas for the future.

It seems that you have your entries at Tony Hawk, precisely…

It's true that I'm there often, because he has a bowl in his garden and a ramp of his own in a shed.

I am very good friends with his son and we often skate together.

At over 50 [54], he still skates well, even though he has just injured his femur.

I would like to be like him at his age.

During the Covid-19, we were going to skate on his ramp, he was giving new ideas for tricks.

Frankly, he's one of the most humble guys I've ever met.

Riley, his eldest son [30 years old], is as strong as him, even if he has a completely different style, because he does a lot of street.

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• Paris 2024 Olympics

• Sport

• skateboarding

• Paris

• Ile-de-France

• UNITED STATES

• Concorde

• Marseilles

• Paca

• Interview