“It’s indescribable how I feel. Lisa Barbelin, by her own admission, has trouble “holding back tears.” On Sunday August 20, the French archer took second place in the Paris Games test event. Crowned vice-world team champion at the beginning of the month in Berlin, she ended up folding (6-4) against the American Casey Kaufhold, world number 7.
If the young woman of 23 years signs her best result in a stage of the World Cup, she especially had a glimpse of the joys of a podium on the esplanade of the Invalides, there where will be held, in less than a year , the archery events of the 2024 Olympics.
“I couldn’t stop looking at the flag that was rising during the anthem, says the 23-year-old Moselle, European champion in 2021, then indoors in 2022. I pinched myself to say to myself “retain this feeling for May next time you be at the top”. »
“It’s one of the toughest World Cup stages we’ve seen, because it comes a week after the World Championships and we’re on the site of the Games, so everyone absolutely wanted to come. to see him. It’s a real significant medal, “reacted the national technical director, Benoit Binon.
“I had a big click”
Since Friday, the Frenchwoman has broken her glass ceiling, making several competitors from Asian countries bend, a first. Because the Asian continent dominates the recurve bow, to the point that the French Archery Federation poached, in February 2022, the South Korean coach Oh Seon-tek, at the head of the team. Peninsula at Sydney 2000 (5 medals) and London 2012 (4 medals).
“I had a big click, explains Lisa Barbelin. I had never beaten an Asian until now. And there, on Friday, I beat the Chinese Zhang Mengyao in the play-offs then the South Korean Kang Chae-young, who is still a monument to archery [Olympic team champion in Tokyo]. »
As Jean-Michel Cléroy, the president of the French federation points out: “Archery is psychological. At some point, you have to beat them. A good omen, 349 days before the women’s final of the 2024 Olympics.