Between managing stress and discovering the international level, Lucile Razet’s goal is to participate in her first Para Athletics World Championships. At 21 years old, this young high-level athlete will have to compete with the international elite, with the goal of becoming one of the best in the 400m in her category.
Originally from Falaise, in Calvados, the daily life of Lucile Razet is rhythmic. She combines her training at INSEP with her last year of study in physiotherapy in Paris. Sport has always been an obvious choice for the young high-level athlete. “I started sports by playing badminton, starting at the age of four.” At age 10, she discovered she had a retinal disease and gradually began to become visually impaired. His eyesight becomes severely impaired, he has only his peripheral vision left to see the lines of a track. She then turned to athletics with the 100m, 200m and long jump. “I needed a sport that allowed me to exercise without my eyesight being a handicap,” she says.
Licensed in a valid recreational club, she was spotted in 2018. ” I discovered the practice of handisport when one of my teachers offered to be my guide in order to participate in a cross-country race. It is thanks to this event that I was redirected to the Departmental Handisport Committee of Normandy “she explains. Lucile then found a club affiliated to the French Handisport Federation and turned to handisport athletics, a discipline adapted to her disability. Classified in the T13 category, which gathers only visually impaired people without guides, Lucile challenges herself against people with the same disability.
“At the time, I hated competitions…”
Today, she is a member of the Stade de Vanves, in the Paris region, and has regained a taste for her sport by joining this category: ” With the able-bodied, I hated the competitions. It was a huge source of stress and anxiety for me. I was afraid to see badly and it was very complicated to manage “confides Lucile.
When she joined the Handisport Federation, some of her stress disappeared: “It allowed me to rediscover my sport, but also to free myself and regain my self-confidence“, Lucile says proudly. This release and confidence boost will allow him to fully improve his performance over 2018. That same year, she climbed the ladder and participated in the French Handisport Indoor Championships in Aubière. A few months later, she participated in the Handisport Open Paris. Then, in August, she joined the French team to participate in the European Championships in Berlin.
Moreover, it is in the French team that she will be able to “de-dramatize” her handicap: ” With the France collective, I met people with the same disability as me and with different disabilities. I especially discovered the mutual aid that exists with everyone. This is what allowed me to put aside my shyness and open myself to others “explains the young Norman.
“The 400m is a race of experience”
A specialist in the 100m and 200m, she will opt for a longer distance when the 200m disappears from the T13 category: ” My coaches told me that I had the profile and skills to do the 400. That’s how I started training and specializing. If it wasn’t for this deletion, I would never have started in the 400m “. She has now put aside the 100m to devote herself solely to the 400m, which she does not regret: ” What I like about this distance is the mythical side of the lap. It is also the challenge side with training sessions that will sometimes be harder. And above all, I take pleasure because many things can happen in a race”, explains the licensee of the Stade de Vanves.
Challenges, but above all a complex distance. Mixing sprinting with endurance requires a certain rigor that Lucile works on at INSEP: ” The 400m is a race of experience. Sometimes you go too fast and it’s very easy to miss. It pays off quickly on the clock », says the young Norman. However, the work should not be done at the expense of the physical form: “In the year, we can not have 10,000 peaks of form, so we worked on my calendar for the season to be ready for all these competitions,” she says.
Rehearsal before July 2023
Lucile Razet has been part of the French team for almost five years, but the World Championships in Paris should be a first for her: “I am working seriously and I have already targeted certain competitions in order to reach the minima, but it won’t be easy“, Lucile explains. To be part of the adventure, this young athlete lacks international experience. Bronze medalist on the universal relay of the 2021 European Championships in Bydgoszcz, it is not enough: ” We’ve just had two very blurry years in terms of international competitions, so I’m not sure where I stand. I need to compete with the best. To feel ready, I have no choice, I will need to repeat several 400m “says Lucile.
Du 8 au 17 juillet 2023, Lucile Razet espère donc enfiler la tenue de l’équipe de France et faire partie de l’aventure à Charléty. A stadium and a track that bring back good memories: ” It was on this track that I experienced my first international competition. After that I came back regularly for the Handisport Open Paris, where I broke personal records. I have always had good sensations and above all I already have my bearings, which is not negligible before a competition, when you are visually impaired “. If there is still a long way to go before the World Championships, one thing is sure, Lucile hopes that the stands will be full: ” fan or not fan, athletics fan or not, it will be a nice moment to share together in this nice stadium of Charléty. I hope that the spectators will come in large numbers, that they will have fun and that it will inspire younger people to take up athletics or para-athletics “.
Editor : Jimmy JOUBERT
COME AND ADMIRE LUCILE RAZET AND THE OTHER PARA-ATHLETES AT THE WORLD PARA-ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIPS – PARIS ’23
