Meet the Australian Olympians with French connections
- by Admin
- July 24, 2024
If the French navigator Lapérouse had arrived in Botany Bay six days earlier in 1788, we might all be speaking French and preparing for a “home” Olympics in Paris.
But as it turned out, Captain Arthur Phillip arrived first, so only a select few athletes in the 460-strong Australian Olympic team have strong links to the host country.
But they include some of our best medal chances — Olympic and world champion slalom canoeist Jess Fox, world champion 10m diver Cassiel Rousseau, world medal-winning road cyclist Grace Brown, World Cup-winning BMX racer Saya Sakakibara and Matildas stalwart Ellie Carpenter.
Reigning Olympic champion Fox may be an all-Australian sporting champion, but French is her mother tongue.
She was born in France’s second city, Marseille, and is the daughter of a French woman Myriam Fox-Jerusalmi and British man Richard Fox, both champion slalom canoeists.
They moved to Australia after Richard was appointed to coach Australia’s slalom canoe team to the Sydney Olympics when Jess was four and her younger sister Noemie, who will make her Olympic debut in kayak cross in Paris, was 18 months old.
“When we started school, Mum made us do French homework on the weekend, and I took French in year 11 and 12 for the writing and vocab,” Fox recalls. “It’s always been important for us to keep that link.
“My parents were coaching the Australian team so we came to Europe each year and they would dump us with our grandparents in Marseille for the summer.”
Fox’s French grandfather Albert Tobelem was a stalwart of the slalom canoeing community, having founded the Marseille Mazorgues Canoe-Kayak Club in the 1970s.
Her links to French canoeing remain strong because she now has a French partner, fellow paddler Mathiew Biazizzo.
“It feels special but not like a home Olympics when I think of what Brisbane will bring (in 2032) and what Sydney had,” she says.
“It won’t have the hype and pressure of a home Olympics, although I have had some attention from the French media because I’m known to be confident speaking in French.”
She may not have the advantage of home support, but Fox says she will have an edge because she feels comfortable in the environment and with the language.
Like most Tokyo Olympians, she looks forward to a more normal Games in Paris, where friends, family and fans can attend.
“I’m looking forward to the crowds and the unique concept of the Games [centred on the streets, squares and river], with events under the incredible monuments,” she says.
Her French grandmother Julie is 89 but she will not be in Paris to watch her granddaughter compete.
“It would be too stressful for her to go,” Fox says.
“Even when she knows the results, she gets too stressed to watch. She paces in the backyard and waits for someone to tell her what’s happened.”
Fox expects the French paddlers, Marjorie Delassus (fourth in the C1 in Tokyo) and Camille Prigent, who are her regular training partners in both France and Australia, to be among her rivals for the Olympic medals in Paris.
Like Fox, world champion 10-metre diver Cassiel Rousseau has deep roots in French sport.
One of seven siblings, and a twin to his sister Clementine, Rousseau is one of four international acrobatics competitors in his family.
It is a sporting talent that came through his French line.
His grandfather Michel Rousseau won a gold medal for France in track cycling at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, but growing up in Brisbane young Cassiel had only a vague knowledge of that history.
“My interest grew a lot more when I was transitioning from acrobatics to diving [in 2017] and thinking about going to the Olympic Games, but I am just now realising how nice it is to have that background,” he says.
His grandfather died in 2016 but his mother, who moved from Paris to Australia to study, will return to her home city to watch her son compete internationally for the first time.
“It will be really special for my mum watching me compete at the Olympics in the place where she grew up,” he says.
Road cyclist Grace Brown is another Australian athlete who may find she has some French support when she races along the streets of Paris as one of the favourites for the individual time trial.
Brown, twice a world championships silver medallist, is in her third season with the French pro team FDJ-Suez, where she and her French coach Flavien Soenen are plotting her bid for the Olympic podium.
She has made a stunning start to the road season, becoming the first Australian woman to win the prestigious Liege-Baston-Liege one-day race in April, and following up with an overall win in the Tour of Brittany in May, winning two of the three stages. She finished second in the individual time trial at the Giro d’Italia earlier this month.
Brown seems primed for the Olympics and says the support she has received from her French team will be a factor in her performance.
“When I first joined the team I had no understanding of French and I felt a bit separate, but each year I have been learning French and spending more time there and understanding the culture and personality [of the country],” she said.
“I have a really soft spot for Paris, and the Paris Olympics is a really big deal for my team.
“I am not French but the team is excited about what I could do there. It’s a little bit unusual for them to be so supportive when you are competing for a championship [for another country].
“Anything I have asked for to help me for the Olympics, they have given me.”
Brown went to Paris in April to scout the road racing courses. She is hopeful the time trial course will suit her.
“It is a bit longer [than previously] which is more in my favour,” she said.
“The finish is under the Eiffel Tower, and we go past the Louvre, so there are some cool monuments on the course.”
Not that she will have the chance to look at them, as she will have her eyes on the prize.
She expects the atmosphere to be electric, given the French love of road cycling.
“Sometimes for cycling purists the Olympics is a distant second behind the traditional races, but I think it will be different in Paris because it’s more connected to the history of cycling,” she said.
BMX racer Sakakibara’s connection to France comes via her partner, France’s world champion Romain Mahieu.
The first couple of BMX is based near Avignon in southern France through the international competition season, and they train at the Sarrians track nearby.
Asked what she likes most about living in France, Sakakibara doesn’t hesitate.
“It’s the tomatoes. They taste great,” she said.
Sakakibara, who has a Japanese mother, had a taste of a home Olympics in Tokyo in 2021, and she is excited by the prospect of a French Games, given her growing love for the country.
“I have strong ties to Japan, so that was special, but I wasn’t able to experience that home feeling because there were no crowds, so it was a weird experience,” she recalls.
“And then I hit my head (during a crash in the semifinal) so that wasn’t a great experience.”
“This time I’m in a better headspace and in better shape and it will be more like the Olympic experience. I think it will feel very special with the French crowd.
“There was a race in Sarrians last year and it had the best crowd. They were so loud and cheering for the French riders like crazy, and I did get a few cheers.
“In Paris the event is sold out so it’s going to be a great atmosphere. There’s a roof over the track and grandstands on either side so it echoes like a stadium.”
ABC Sport will be live blogging every day of the Paris Olympics from July 27
Access to the Olympic BMX track is expensive — 500 Euros ($820) for two hours — but through Sakakibara’s French contacts, she has been able to train there regularly for free with the French team.
Her familiarity with the track may prove crucial to her medal hopes.
“It’s a huge advantage,” she says.
“It’s a challenging track. There are big jumps for the women — bigger than we have at other tracks — but it’s meant to challenge us.
“It does help the more skilled riders who can do those jumps cleanly. I have the skills to get through it, but it’s a mental barrier to get past the fear and go for it.”
Two of the Matildas football team, defenders Ellie Carpenter and Clare Hunt, are also based in France with French clubs.
Carpenter has played for Lyon since 2020, while Hunt has been with Paris St-Germain for the past year.
Team vice-captain Carpenter, who speaks French, has offered to take on translation duties for her teammates.
“I’ll help the girls when they need to order a coffee or something,” she says. But on the field, she’s expecting tough competition and a special atmosphere.
“It does feel different,” she says.
“[In Rio] obviously I was very young but it was an amazing experience. Then Tokyo didn’t really feel like an Olympic Games, so this one I think will top it off … [It will be] very unique, I’m very excited about this one. We’ll get that real Olympic feeling from the fans and our families.”
Another prospective Olympian with French links is 18-year-old artistic swimmer Raphaelle Gauthier, who was born in Saint-Jerome in France and grew up in Montreal before moving to Perth last year, qualifying to compete for Australia through her father.
She is now part of the first Australian artistic swimming team to ever win a medal at world level, the silver medal at the World Aquatics Cup in Beijing in April.
Australians may also find themselves cheering for French Australian Sasha Zhoya in the 110m hurdles.
World junior record holder Zhoya was raised in Perth by his French mother, and elected to represent France after Paris was awarded the 2024 Olympics.
For the Australian athletes with ties to France, these Games will tug a little harder at their heartstrings.
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