Tokyo en Seine: "Never in my life I would have thought to be there" ... in skate, Charlotte Hym plays the pioneers

The Games, 9,700 kilometers away.

During the entire Olympic fortnight, the world will live on Tokyo time.

And despite the distance and the time difference, Île-de-France will also vibrate to the rhythm of the exploits of its athletes.

Through portraits, reports, interviews and pretty stories, we will tell you daily about the journey of our local athletes, their life in Japan and that of their loved ones who remained in France.

Because even in Tokyo, you always need a little bit of Paris in your life.

From the Cosanostra skatepark in Chelles to the Ariake Urban Sports Park in Tokyo… Parisian skater Charlotte Hym, 26, will be one of the twenty pioneers of the street event, which is making its appearance in Japan. “It's new, different, an experience to be lived,” smiles the young woman. Never in my life would I have thought to be there. Why not try the adventure? If so, we're going to go, we're not going to like the experience, but if you don't go you can't talk about it, you can't criticize without living it. You have to forge your opinion. And we will still be the first… ”

Qualified last month with 18th place in the world, Charlotte played the game to the max.

“Before, I skated for fun but I didn't really play sports.

But you have to do it to work on the figures on the obstacles, to improve your consistency ... I did physical preparation, took more care of my body and I am happy with the result.

I have become a top athlete.

Before preparing for the Olympics, I had never seen an osteopath when we just fell!

"

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The three-time champion of France did not have too much trouble fitting into the mold of “traditional” disciplines. “I played badminton for a few years and so I already had the experience of competition, rules, training, she breathes. I reproduced that a bit. We are not going to take our head on the words and say that we do not train because the term is pejorative! From the moment you repeat a figure 100 times to succeed in the 101st it is training. In the street, even “core” skateboarders who do not compete are training. I have friends who are against it but they don't have a problem with that. They have always encouraged me in this adventure and are super proud that I am going to the Games even if they do not see themselves in this representation of skateboarding. "

Skater and Doctor of Neuroscience

So Charlotte worked out all the details.

Like that of acclimatization to heat and humidity in a room with tarpaulins… and a fryer fitted out in Chelles.

“You have to seize all the opportunities,” she says.

It will be played on a reduced format where we will go from 20 in the morning to 8 in the afternoon.

Everything can be played out.

Perhaps the in camera will also affect the performance of the Japanese… ”

To read also "We must not interfere with their creative side": how the Skate, who arrives at the Olympics, learned professionalism

Whatever the outcome of his Japanese epic, the Habs will find in a few months the thread of his double life, put on Olympic parentheses for a year and a half.

When she gets off her board, the skater becomes… a doctor in neuroscience.

“I finished my thesis in November 2019,” she explains. I then planned to take a six-month break from the 2020 Olympics. Finally, I was able to devote myself a little longer to skate with a free spirit. I will undoubtedly resume a postdoctoral research in early 2022 with the team of which I was part. I am working on the effects of maternal stimuli on the motor skills of newborns. My thesis director was used to working with people from STAPS, the doctoral student before me was a volleyball player. She readily accepted that I wanted to take this chance at the Games and let me go. I also provided the necessary amount of work and managed to do both. "

Charlotte will have to continue juggling for a while. Because she intends to participate in the 2024 Olympics in her city of birth. “As a Parisian, I absolutely have to try,” she says. We also have a role to play. That of making girls or boys want to say to themselves that what we are doing is too cool. I'm sure that after Tokyo, there are quite a few who will ask for a skate for their birthday… ”