The new head coach of the French women’s team is no stranger to the Bercy or to the highest level of achievement in sport. She is an Olympic champion, 3 times a world champion and in Paris she is also a legend, a 3-time winner at the Bercy. Lucie Decosse is respected the world over and her new position feels natural, almost expected. Waiting for the first day of competition to begin, she could be found in the warm-up room, behind the scenes in the Accor Arena.
“The French Judo Federation asked me to come to be the new women’s head coach. It is a big job and so I am both nervous and excited. I am excited to come back to the team but this is not the same job I had before, I won’t be coaching so much now. I have the responsibility for the whole women’s team and it’s a lot!
As soon as I was appointed I received so many messages, straight away, and nothing is simple. I’m used to training on the mat with the girls but the view now is bigger, it has to be. It’s good for me to have a new perspective. I now have a more global view and for my own development too, it is good.
For this Olympiad I think we have a very strong team of judoka and so the project is to keep the existing team in good condition as they want to continue but we have to help the new girls integrate. For Los Angeles it is likely we will have one from the existing team and one new judoka to fight for the places in each category. Mostly, the young ones don’t have results yet and this four years is already short. To manage to keep the whole team together with so many differences is a big task.
We have a lot of work to do but we have a good base. We need this concurrence. We don’t want the big team to retire but to keep them here and elevate the young to meet their level. The big team have managed many medals at the worlds and Olympics in the last cycle but we have no current Olympic gold medallist and so there is still a fire within them, driving them to fight for these titles. I am here to help them do that.”
Lucie appears calm in the Accor Arena warm-up room, watching the team and building plans for the big future that lies ahead of her.
