ENGIE Catch up on Team ENGIE news before the holidays and the New Year
Last November, Azores Airlines Pro, a round in the World Surf League (WSL) qualifying series (QS), was held in Santa Barbara, São Miguel Island, in the Azores (Portugal).
It was an important round for Pauline, who came second. Points earned in the competition will help determine the European QS ranking and qualify surfers for the 2022 Challenger Series.
See you next January for more stages to be potentially held in Netanya, Israel.
Provisional Women's QS ranking
1st - Teresa Bonvalot (PRT)
2nd - Pauline Ado (FRA)
3rd tied - Rachel Presti (DEU) & Mafalda Lopes (PRT)
Team ENGIE's surfer had hoped for another outcome in the tour's final stage. Coming 3rd in provisional rankings for Portugal's second stage, Pauline was unable to remain in the Top 6, barring her from qualifying for the pro circuit 2022 World Championship Tour.
The French woman was eliminated in the last 16, dominated by American surfers Carissa Moore and Alyssa Spencer during the last stage in Hawaii.
"Of course, this was not the outcome I had hoped for. I am disappointed by my performance in Haleiwa yesterday. But 2021 was nonetheless filled with incredibly rich experiences and emotions thanks to the circuit starting again, along with qualifying for Tokyo 2020, my Olympic experience, and positive rankings in the Ericeira and Azores stages."
The Team surfer is now off to Tahiti for a well-earned break, and more importantly, to train on Teahupoo waves, which will be the future Paris 2024 Olympic Games spot! A place in which Team kite surfers Poema and Axel have also chosen to train, far as it is from the cold waters of southern France.
In the wake of the Saint Boy scandal, which revealed the abuse of the horse by German pentathlete Annika Schleu and her coach at the Tokyo Olympics, the UIPM (International Union of Modern Pentathlon) will remove riding from modern pentathlons after the 2024 Paris Games.
According to Elodie Clouvel, Team ENGIE's pentathlete, a Silver medallist at the Rio 2016 Games, and 6th in Tokyo, the decision is too radical. Elodie feels that changing sport rules, rather than eliminating it altogether, would have been enough.
"Without riding, our sport can no longer be described as modern pentathlon.The basis of the sport is seeing a warrior arriving on a horse, fighting with a sword, swimming in a river, someone who can take anything on, who is a complete fighter. I call that a gladiator, a female gladiator. A pentathlete without a horse is not complete. The very DNA of the sport will be totally transformed without this component. We must sit around a table, talk about how we could reshape the sport, make it more TV-friendly, and open it up to more people."
Modern pentathlon, which has been a traditional Olympic sport for over a century, combines fencing, swimming, riding, shooting, and running. It was invented by Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of modern Olympic Games, and is now seeking a new activity that will replace riding.
The sport continues to make a lot of noise following the IOC's announcement a few days ago. The IOC's executive commission has temporarily removed modern pentathlon from the list of 28 sports which had de facto featured in Olympic programmes. The measure is due to be implemented for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
The aim is to replace three traditional sports (modern pentathlon, weightlifting, and boxing) with younger sports such as skateboarding, climbing, and surfing, as a way of appealing to a younger Olympic audience.
However, pentathlon still has a chance of featuring in California. To subsist, the International Union of Modern Pentathlon must propose a sport that will replace riding by 2023. The new combination will need to be easier to understand and entail lower organisation costs. Pentathlon must also evolve into a more universal sport that will be of greater interest to young people.
Until the new mystery sport is announced, Elodie will prepare for Paris, where riding will still feature. The format is nonetheless likely to be adapted, with lower and fewer obstacles.
After stopovers at Lorient-Gâvres, La Grande-Motte and Arcachon, ENGIE Kite Tour was back on the Mediterranean coast with its grand finale in Leucate, Aude (12-14/11).
It was only after the final stage of the tour that the overall champions of ENGIE Kite Tour 2021 could be proclaimed. Axel Mazella, Alexia Fancelli, Faodren Le Coq and Alex Caizergues won the 2021 edition!
Following four victories out of the four stages of the edition, it was only natural that Alex would climb onto the first podium step in the directional board category. After eleven races (eight of them qualifying) and a great performance all weekend in Leucate, Axel Mazella took the KiteFoil title ahead of Nicolas Parlier and Arthur Mathieu. Already first in provisional rankings before this last stage, he also reached the highest step. As for Poema, she finished fourth in the women's KiteFoil race.
Following great performances in the three first Italian, Austrian, and Sardinian stages, the two European champions are continuing their success in the Canaries, where they will tackle the last two circuit stages. Finishing first for the last stage on Gran Canaria, Axel and Poema both came home with the KiteFoil World Series Cup. The competition is Poema's first victory and Axel's third… likewise in the European Championship!
A season finale triumph for Team kite surfers, and international performances that proved the high level of French athletes yet again, boding well for the Paris Games, which will be featuring the sport for the first time!
To learn more about our two kite surfers, watch the video of a typical day of training.
Exceptionally, the 2022 World Triathlon Championship Series (WTCS), began in 2021 with two stages, one Hamburg and the other in Abu Dhabi, where Cassandre made a comeback after the break that followed her participation in the Tokyo Games. Team ENGIE's triathlete and leading French woman took sixth place, coming 1'43" after Olympic champion and stage winner Flora Duffy.
At 36, the track cyclists from Mayenne and one of the most successful French riders in his sport, put an end to his high-level career. Holder of seven world championship titles and of fourteen individual world medals for track cycling, François is also the first Frenchman in the entire history of his sport to have won a medal in each game, with a Bronze in the 2016 Rio Olympics, and a Bronze in the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics. This makes him the fourth world athlete to have both medals!
"I would naturally like to thank my family and friends, for whom I have been so absent over the last twenty years, as well as my employer, partners, and sponsors, without whom I would never have been able to make a living and flourish from my sport. I also want to thank my fan club, my club, and all the supporters who have given me unconditional support. "
Following a 20-year career as a top-level rider, a chapter is ending for François Pervis. Having already launched his post-athletic career, he is currently a corporate speaker and consultant for France TV and the Equipe channel, where he is a commentator for all track cycling races. He is also the founder of a team building business specialised in first track experiences for individuals and companies.
Concerned about the environment and the wellbeing of our planet, François is involved in a bamboo plantation, which is increasingly replacing plastics and is a major carbon sink, since it absorbs five times more carbon than trees.
ENGIE is proud to have supported François in his last goal in the Tokyo Paralympic Games. We wish him many successes in all his fantastic projects.
See more images and details about his future projects:
Last year, on December 8th, Raphaël told us that he had committed to a new pilot for new adventures and a new goal, winning the Gold Medal at the Paris Olympics!
Quentin Caleyron will now be Raphaël's eyes on the track! Following a high-level BMX racing career, Quentin is embarking on a new challenge with tandem track cycling.
Check in next February 13th for their first major duo competition in the French Championships in Bourges.
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Engie SA published this content on 20 December 2021 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 20 December 2021 17:39:03 UTC.
