Ysaora Thibus: Being an Olympian during COVID-19
Olympic fencer Ysaora Thibus joins us as this week’s CRWNMUSE
AJ: Can you tell us a little about you? Where are you from, what is your chosen sport? How long have you been playing?
Ysaora Thibus: I’m 28 and I’m a French Olympian. I grew up on a small French island called Guadeloupe where I started fencing when I was 7 years old. I did other sports before fencing, including swimming and ballet, but I really fell in love with fencing. I love the game, the competitiveness and the freedom that it makes me feel. I’m currently the number one foil fencer in France and will be competing at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
AJ: This year has been a trying year for literally everyone. How has the pandemic impacted your progress?
YJ: For Olympians, it has been difficult because we shape our lives around the Olympic games. We prepared for four years for this competition and we were 3 months away from competing. I was feeling really good and was on a strong streak of wins before the pandemic. Right before the pandemic, I won the Grand Prix.
Being an Olympian is a very intense lifestyle. You work out 3 times a day and travel a lot. We never really take a break. At the beginning of the lockdown, I was really emotional and I tried to keep the same intensity of training every day. But after a while, I found more serenity and let go allowing myself to process all of the sudden change that’s been happening. I’ve been focusing on maintaining physical and mental health.
AJ: How do you feel about the Olympics being postponed?
YJ: At first, it was very concerning when they were trying to keep the Olympics going as planned. I was not able to train like I usually do and the emotional weight of what was happening with COVID-19 hit me hard. I was really down and I was losing motivation. And I was very concerned about athletes and their families being exposed to COVID-19 if the games went on as planned. When they announced that the games would be postponed, I felt a sense of relief. The most important thing is the safety and health of everyone. Sports is not a priority in a global health crisis.
AJ: Is there anything in particular you're doing to stay on top of training?
YJ: My mental health is the aspect of training I have worked on the most during quarantine. I believe that you have to work equally on your mind and your body to be able to perform at your best. I’ve had sessions with my sports psychologist every week and the most important thing we’ve worked on was to let go of the things that I cannot control and focus on myself. We’ve worked through finding ways I can nourish myself other than physical training and be ready when it is time to start working hard again. I’ve also worked on other projects that I’ve wanted to do for a long time. One of them is an Instagram Live show called ‘Essentielle’. I interview female athletes from around the world about what it means to be an athlete in 2020. I’ve always wanted to create a platform for female athletes, and am grateful to have the opportunity to do it now.
AJ: What unique challenges do you believe athletes will have to contend with in the wake of the pandemic and moving the games to next year?
YJ: We’ve all had to make changes to our training regimen since the lockdown started. For fencing, it’s a very specific style of training. I think one of the unique challenges athletes will have is making sure they are prepared physically. We all have had to make changes to our training and that will impact how we perform. We’ve had to make changes that we didn’t know we would have to make, and that’s a lot to process and figure out, especially under the high-pressure of being an Olympic athlete.
AJ: We are also in the midst of a social revolution, as a black female athlete, how do you feel about it?
YJ: I feel so many emotions at once, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly how I feel day to day. I feel sad, I feel angry, I feel tired, but I also feel that it is critical to fight and speak up. There are a lot of things that need to change, and this social revolution is opening the door for that change to really happen. As a black female athlete, I’ve done a lot of self-reflection thinking through the change I want to see in the world and how I can actively contribute. As a professional athlete, it is my responsibility to use my platform to open a dialogue about what is happening. We have to have the hard conversations. Here and in my own country, France. Nothing will change if we don’t.
Follow along with Ysaora site here to learn more about her!
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