The five-time world champion revealed that he had returned from the London Games “at the bottom of the hole” after his fourth position and had “questioned everything”.
By Jeanne Le Borgne for Le Point
© FRANCOIS XAVIER MARIT / AFP
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SA taboo subject for athletes a few years ago, more and more of them took the floor to talk about “mental health”. And, this week, it is the five-time world champion Camille Lacourt who confided in the journalists of the Parisian on his “burn-out” after the London Olympics in 2012. In question: a fourth place, just after his first title of world champion.
“I went to the bottom of the hole. I felt like no matter what was around me, a broken vase had to be filled. I no longer had any motivation for anything,” he admits. “When it’s so violent, when you question everything, it’s horrible. »
At first, Camille Lacourt blames the blow and thinks that it is “just a big disappointment”, but, with hindsight, the swimmer now admits that he actually suffered from a “burn -out”. “At the time, we didn’t talk about these subjects. It was a long time later that I understood”, recognizes the Narbonnais, who explains that he did not speak to anyone about his suffering during “these difficult times”. “When you’re still in the hard, it can show a weakness,” he laments.
A subject “still too stigmatized”
However, Camille Lacourt does not specifically blame his career as a high-level athlete, but more on the level of “stress” he was faced with. His distress still pushed him to want to stop the competition. “But I always had a little phrase in mind: ‘Failure is not to fail, but to give up.’ “, he confides to the journalists of the Parisian.
Today, the five-time world champion, who left the pools in 2017, is delighted with the awareness that has taken place in the sports world, and in particular with the speaking out of Michael Phelps. Only, he regrets that the mental suffering is “still [un sujet] still too stigmatized” in society. This is moreover why he is now speaking out on the subject, to tell all those who listen to him that “it’s not a shame to go through this”, that we must speak up and not reluctant to ask for help.