It all started with a seemingly innocuous call from Chantilly town hall to ask her if she didn't want to submit an application to be one of the bearers of the Olympic flame.
Without really believing it, Sophie Chuette “gave it a try” last fall.
A few months later, the verdict was in: she will brandish this universal symbol for a few minutes and as many hectometers on July 18, the date of the 59th stage of a journey started in France on May 8.
“I wrote a little letter talking about my career, my job, my passions, etc.,” says the 31-year-old female jockey.
I did it without planning, while having a little hope deep inside me.
Finally, I learned that I will be one of the three Cantilians carrying the flame that day.
I am really very honored and very happy, because it is something historic.
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We will therefore not have to count on Sophie Chuette to get into the saddle that day in competition.
Out with his boots, his helmet or his riding crop, make way for sneakers but above all for the excitement linked to the event.
The one who says she is “delighted to represent racing and [her] city at the same time” has spent her entire career in the city of horses.
And the values of Olympism are far from foreign to him.
“As I didn't go to jockey school, I started as a rider (a status allowing me to have another activity) in 2012,” says the lucky lady.
It was ultimately Mathieu Boutin, a trainer based in Chantilly, who put me on the path to becoming a full-fledged jockey (in 2016).
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Winner of a quinté, the most popular race for punters, and 73 victories in total, Sophie Chuette has made a name for herself among horse racing aficionados but remains little known to the general public.
This exhibition will probably not change much but it will be able to boast of having followed in the footsteps of jockey Yutaka Take, a true living legend in Japan, who also carried the flame on the occasion of the last Olympic Games in Tokyo.