“You just won bronze at the X Games, what does it represent for you?
Frankly, I feel like I won, I was so happy. I find myself against Alex Jumelin (silver medalist in 2022), my lifelong brother, in the small final. And there was no more brother (smile). I did not want to be fourth two years in a row, the place of the idiot. I won, but Alex rode too well. When they gave me the medal, I was like a kid in a candy store. I grew up watching the X Games on TV since 2002. They took the flat out 20 years ago, they put it back last year. This may be my last chance to come back with a medal. When I had it with me… And yet I don’t care about trophies (speaking of the object), but there, it really made me something special and I will keep it all my life, that’s for sure.
How do you place this medal in your career?
Frankly, just after the rainbow jersey of the Montpellier World Championships (2022) and before the European Championships (2021), It’s certain. It’s such a mythical competition the X Games, it’s really the Olympic Games of action sports, and it was missing from my list. To have checked that, I swear to you, it did me a lot of good.
“They tell me about a guy who is 45 years old, who is as fit and as prepared as me and with an intact motivation after all these years. It really is an example.”
About Alex Jumelin, four times world champion
At the X Games, you beat Alex Jumelin (4 times world champion) for bronze. Do you expect a rematch at the Fise de Montpellier this weekend?
Of course. In addition, last year, he was not even qualified in the final because it is an event where he is at home and which takes a lot of energy from him. But he came back with another motivation, full of new tricks. He’s still amazing, what’s he got? 45 years old. They tell me about a guy who is 45 years old, who is as fit and as prepared as I am and with an intact motivation after all these years. He is really an example for myself and for all disciplines, there is no other guy in another discipline who is as motivated and as prepared as Alex Jumelin today. Overall, we have exactly the same level and I am ten years younger than him. So we’ll see, we’ll explain ourselves on the air of flat. What’s great is that he was still at home yesterday with his children, it’s family outside of competitions. And for three minutes, we’re really adversaries, we’re no longer friends. So, it’s a really strange situation. But it’s funny.
This Fise (the equivalent of a World Cup) is an important step in your quest for 10th world title in August in Glasgow?
Downright. It’s the same competition format: a three-minute run, with generally the same competitors. So it’s going to be a general rehearsal before the most important stage for me of the year which is going to be Glasgow (at the World Championships, August 3-13). Frankly, it’s not going to be easy to win Fise and Glasgow, I know that, but I’m giving everything for it. But Michel Blanc (in the film Les bronzés are skiing) once said “on a misunderstanding it can work, go ahead, go for it! »(laughs). And I will have Michel Blanc in my head at the start of my run, at Fise as in Glasgow. But the level is even higher this year. I’m not the strongest technically anymore but I think that with experience and being at home, I can do something here. So let’s see what will happen. »