triathlete Cassandre Beaugrand ready to exorcise Tokyo

Published on : 03/12/2023 – 09:47

5 mins

“Having met the selection criteria takes a weight off,” admits Cassandre Beaugrand. After an exemplary 2023 season, the 26-year-old triathlete already has one foot in Paris for the Olympic Games, barring any incident or injury. His third Olympics after Tokyo and Rio.

“If I could do the criteria, it would be better, but I didn’t think about it constantly. We are three girls and we risk having three ‘slots’ (places for France in the competition, Editor’s note). “The pressure wasn’t necessarily there,” she puts things into perspective. “Above all, I wanted to perform throughout the year.”

Objective accomplished for the native of Livry-Gargan, near Paris: she won the events in Sunderland (July 29), Hamburg (July 15) and finished second in the test event on the Olympic course (August 17). Long at the head of the general classification, however, she let the title of world champion slip away during the “superfinal”, leaving her with a touch of bitterness.

“At the start of the season I would have been completely happy with my second place, but coming into the lead before the grand final I had a mix of emotions at the finish. I felt really in good shape this year, I knew I had the ability, but I had enormous frustration at not being able to express myself fully in the last race (where she finished third, Editor’s note) because I had cramps… It’s really frustrating and it spoils my shopping a little,” she admits, a few weeks later.

Chasing the ghosts of Tokyo

Cassandre Beaugrand is already looking forward to the coming season, which she intends to plan as best as possible to prepare for the Olympic race.

“I have already had a first idea of ​​the schedule that I could have and my objective is to stay in Europe as much as possible to avoid jet lag, which leads to fatigue and loss of training time,” explains- her, noting that this was already her method in 2023.

Above all, she hopes that on July 31, she will finally be able to put behind her the huge disappointment that the 2021 Tokyo Olympics were for the Frenchwoman. She was forced to withdraw from the individual event even though her victory in the test event had raised the hope of seeing her become the first medal-winning French triathlete in history.

“I was at the bottom of the hole,” she says, with a touch of emotion. “It was super difficult because Léonie Périault (who finished fifth, Editor’s note) is one of my best friends and I had to be there to show that I was happy for her. And at the same time, I I was completely destroyed. We shared the same room, she was super happy because she had done a superb performance, and I was completely at rock bottom.”

“I had invested a lot, I performed well in training before leaving for Tokyo and I really had confidence in myself. I set the bar too high and I put pressure on myself,” she notes two years later.

The level of disappointment is such that the federation as well as his teammates fear for his ability to re-mobilize for the mixed event: “If you see someone at the bottom of the hole, in their bed and who no longer wants to move, you say to yourself: ‘Damn, she’s going to have to move anyway!'”, she now prefers to laugh about it. “But in the team relay, I am able to transcend myself even more so I knew that I would be present at the relay and that I would want to show what I am really worth.”

But she is present at the moment of writing the history of the first Olympic medal in French triathlon alongside her roommate, as well as Dorian Coninx and Vincent Luis. A brief relief before a “complicated” period: “I didn’t even want to continue my season. I wanted to be left alone. I went on vacation, and I didn’t want anyone to talk to me about triathlon anymore… “, she blurted.

New life

Since she was 17, Cassandre Beaugrand was part of Creps de Montpellier where the French triathlon center is based. But, after Tokyo, she felt the need to reinvent herself. If, usually, triathletes tend to migrate south to seek the sun and pleasant temperatures for their training, Cassandre Beaugrand is betting the opposite. She went into exile across the Channel, to England, where she joined her boyfriend, a member of the British national open water swimming team.

“I wanted to move, but I didn’t necessarily know where to go. Ultimately, it’s a great group. I went a bit blind, the federation was a bit scared, but I knew that I was hardworking and I wanted to prove that I had made the right choice,” she explains.

“I think it did me a lot of good to go to England. It’s another environment, I see another mentality and it brought me other things,” she continues.

In Loughborough, Cassandre Beaugrand has access to the “ultimate” for a triathlete: a closed circuit for cycling and running, a physical trainer, a physiotherapist… She also benefits from the proximity of British triathletes like Alex Yee. Enough to breathe new life into her career, and to leave behind the disappointment of Tokyo.