SynchroNice / Third Edition / 2018

do gymnastics.” Gymnastics was my first passion for 6 years even though I also practiced other sports like dance and horseback riding. But one day, my friend Mélanie asked me to accompany her to a test session, because she had skated when she was younger and she intended to start at it again. At the end of this session, I started skating as well and did one training a week. I was 9, and for two years, I combined these four sports before devoting myself to the gym and skating. Gradually though, my heart began to gently lean towards skating for different reasons: I had fun, I learned and I progressed more than in gymnastics, but even more by a frightening experience, a severe fall. I had to be transported by firefighters to emergency. Fortunately, it was more fear than harm but I didn’t want to go back. I finished my season, and the year after, I devoted myself entirely to skating. Who was your coach at the time? Well, it was that year that a new coach arrived in my club, Valérie Ballester who had just returned from Canada and I think it’s also what changed my life. She re-launched synchro teams in the club, I joined the “juvenile” team, and as I wanted to progress I took extra hours and I also started compe- titions of figure skating. (By the way, a few years later, in the junior category, I qualified for the French champi- onships in 2nd division.) Anyway, from that moment on, my daily routine became figure skating at lunchtimes, evenings and Saturday mornings, and I kept on skating in both disciplines. During the summer holidays, I even took stages in figure skating just to continue to improve my individual skating. I represented the club ISCL Louviers during my ten years of skating in France. My first major international competition experience was in Sweden in 2007. Rouen (45min from Louviers) were 2 skaters short in their team right after French Cup. Their coach Anne-Sophie Druet asked for two skaters from Louviers to fill up the gap for the rest of the season. Later in 2008, the clubs became allied to create a new team, Team Synchro Energie. The idea was to bring together the best skaters from both clubs and represent France at the Junior World Championships. (We were training in both rinks, Louviers and Rouen.) As of season 2002-2003, I attended every French Cup and I participated for the first time in 2009. It was the rea- lization of a dream. In 2010, we qualified during French Cup for the JWCC 2010 (Junior World Challenge Cup) in Gothenburg, Sweden. Wow, for the first time I was skating in such a high-level environment and that experience left me two dreams, first I wanted to be part of the world top 10 preferably with France, and second, I wanted to skate abroad. Well, well, what skating can do to a young girl’s mind? Hahaha yes, this was also the season I fell in love with Les Suprêmes. Their junior Free program on Scary Mo- vie was our team’s favourite, and it was the one program we all absolutely had to see in Gothenburg. When did you go to Canada? My final season in France was a difficult one, the team fell apart because the lack of new skaters and was dissolved and back home, my parents got divorced. I felt like my whole world collapsed. However, these two events brought me closer to my dreams and opened the pages to a new chapter in my life. My mother saw this opportunity and encouraged me to have a go for it, my coach Valérie supported this, so we sent this video to Marilyn by way of auditioning. I already had met Marilyn Langlois before, she used to come to France to coach different teams of different levels from the north of France. Anyway… 4 months later, I was taking my first steps on the ice in Montréal. I had become a Suprêmes. I realized at that point that some of my new teammates skated in this program back then in Gothenburg. These skaters I admired so much were now my teammates. What used to be just a dream…became everyday life. Since then I believe that “The distance between your dreams and reality is called Action. “ I guess you’re spending off season in France? Well in general, between the World Championship and any SYNCHRO NICE 81 At Les Suprêmes the girls elect their own captains. Les Suprêmes