The medals are piling up on their shelves, and they were ready, at the end of the lessons, to skip snack time to rush into the locker rooms.
These teenagers are certainly not professional athletes… But all the same they dreamed of being champions, in their own way.
The coronavirus epidemic suspended for nearly a year the practice of their sporting activity, with their well-being and their progress.
Since December 15, young amateur athletes have been authorized to resume training: they must hang up their sporting journey between barrier gestures and stopping competitions.
Read also: Amateur sport, big left behind by the health crisis
In Avignon (Provence), Nicolas is preparing to find the beams with a little apprehension.
The 14-year-old gymnast trained 8 hours a week before confinement reduced his workouts to a few squats performed on Snapchat with his classmates.
“It's been two months since I did stunts.
I wasn't going to practice on my bed, ”he
explains.
“
I'm afraid of hurting myself.
I have fragile ankles and flexibility goes quickly, when you are not training ”
.
The teenager quickly gives up the phone to his mother Laëtitia, relieved: the weeks without sports, she says, were "difficult" for her son.
“He's a teenager who needs to let off steam, who is used to exerting himself.
He made up for it with the tablet and snacking.
In the evening, he lacked good fatigue, he fell asleep late. "
Weight gain and lack of training
"We will have to recover adolescents who have lost the habit of moving,"
notes Grégory Mendiburu, judo coach in Caen (Calvados).
“We sent them muscle building exercises, but only the most motivated will have done them.
Many young people need a fun framework to exercise. ”
The return to sport will be complicated.
At the end of November, an ANSES report warned of the sedentary lifestyle of adolescents, who have gained 6 kilos on average since the first confinement, according to the parliamentary report on youth presented to the Assembly on Wednesday.
"The risk is that our members will not come back"
, sighs Josette Roux, president of the Entente Gymnique d'Avignon, where Nicolas trains.
The club has lost 200 members out of 800 since the start of the epidemic.
The president welcomes young athletes on Wednesday for their return to the gymnasium with lots of goodies and smiles.
“We also organized remedial courses during the holidays.
The goal is to give back the pleasure of going back to the gym, getting back into physical condition and finding your marks! ”
, she explains.
"Judo without a fight is like football without a ball"
Grégoire Mendiburu, coach
Covid-19 requires, these brands will no longer be quite the same.
Contact is prohibited whatever the sport: martial arts will therefore be done… Without a fight.
“For judo, it's like playing football without a ball, or boxing in front of a mirror,”
sighs Grégoire Mendiburu.
"Too bad
", summarizes Léo, 8 eight years old.
His mother Nathalie had registered him in a karate club in Nice so that he could
"fight"
... Hoping to calm his hyperactivity.
"Not sure he wants to go back!"
Read also: Young French people move less than their elders, a future major health problem
The end of the competitions, heartbreaking champions
No fight, no match, no competition.
If the championships continue for professional athletes, those for amateurs are postponed until further notice… When they are not canceled.
Difficult to live for young athletes who certainly without Olympic pretension are built in competition.
“Gymnastics is a sport that shows itself.
It gives rigor, it pulls up, it gives me self-confidence, ”
explains Nicolas.
“What's the point of training if you always play with the same people, and you can't compete with other clubs?”
grumbles Martin Balesm, a young 15-year-old handball player in Angers.
He, who claims to live for handball
"every night after school, on Saturday at the match", is
worried about the consequences of this missed season.
“I arrived last year in this team of a good level.
It took me a long time to integrate.
I needed this year to prove myself and hope to level up next year, in the -18 year-old category
,
”he
explains.
“We will lose young talent, that's for sure.
Competition is important to retain young people in a sport, ”
emphasizes Josette Roux, president of the Entente Gymnique d'Avignon.
"What's the point of training if you always play with the same people, and you can't compete with other clubs?"
"
Martin Balesm, 15-year-old handball player
For some, the end of training and competitions is a severe blow to a promising sporting course.
This is the case of Max Marie, a judoka at the Avant-Garde club in Caen (Calvados), who was still, just six months ago, registered on the list of high-level athletes, authorized them to continue fighting.
“
I'm not on the list this year because of a club change.
But I was aiming for at least one podium for the French championships
,
”
says the 15-year-old athlete.
Considered an amateur, Max has the right, from Tuesday, to set foot on the tatami ... But without being able to fight.
“It's completely unfair.
Combat is where we learn the reflexes, those of dodging and those of attack.
I'm going to come back to competition without having fought for six months when my professional opponents will not be interrupted. "
It is not only frustration: the ban on practicing his sport undermines his judoka projects.
“The younger years represent a big step forward.
This is where you can get spotted, by clubs or to participate in big competitions…
”, he sighs.
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Others, like the young dancers, will still have to take their troubles patiently: the lessons are not considered "sport" and cannot start again on December 15th.
Luna Jaffres, 12 years old from Brittany, is training on skype to make pointe shoes in the hope of keeping her ballet level and perhaps one day entering a good school.
"But with the webcam, you can't show the teacher both feet and arms at the same time, whereas in ballet dancing it's the most difficult coordination
,
" she
remarks sagaciously.
“I'm going to stop, I think.
It is as if you were dancing all alone with someone watching you: horrible! ”.