2023-10-07 09:15:00
In 1988, the first French women’s French combat boxing championship was created. Thirty-five years later, the number of “BF” practitioners is skyrocketing. To see it, go to the Charléty stadium, at the Paris Université Club (PUC). In the sports complex, photos of top athletes adorn the walls. Like a call to surpass oneself, one year before the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. On the football field, children dressed in the club’s purple jersey dream of themselves as Mbappé. Here, sport is a perfect unifier.
In a downstairs room, rubbing shoulders with the energetic squash players of the evening, Constance, 32, devotes herself to French boxing. With her white and blue gloves, her mouth guard and her savate shoes – the other name for French boxing – she trains in a mixed class. That evening, there were four women for seven men. “We’re just “armed”, the sole is aimed and it goes straight away… Somehow, it’s also a kind of feint… Come on, let’s try. » The instructions from Ludovic Petey, trainer for over twenty years, are technical, requiring an advanced course.
READ ALSO Paris 2024 Olympics: how our French champions are preparing for the eventWith eleven years of practice, Constance sets out. A direct one, followed by a whipping and a chasing. Among his possible opponents for the evening, Marco, 1.88 m, 92 kg. Whatever. Everyone respects each other, adapts and learns from each other. That’s what diversity is in French boxing. “I’m proud to practice a sport with so much diversity, I highlight it when I talk about it,” confides the 31-year-old shooter. “In French boxing, the teaching is quite adapted. BF has always been a sport for all audiences, but it is true that over the past ten years, we have seen many more women arriving as beginners,” explains coach Ludovic Petey.
More than 20,000 licensees in France
The figures speak for themselves: there are 21,550 licensees nationally for the 2022-2023 season. French boxing shoes are popular. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, the figures were even higher, with almost 25,000 made redundant (2017-2018).
For Constance, who has always been attracted to combat sports, it all started with a film, Fighter (2010): “It made me want to take the plunge, and more particularly for boxing. There were no female characters in this film, which motivated me. I didn’t have any particular apprehension about training with men, and it was the foot-fist aspect in the slipper that appealed to me, particularly for the flexibility. Today, I am proud of my level. »
READ ALSO Boxing classes to free victims of domestic violenceTraining continues, under the watchful eye of Geneviève Petey, president of the Savate French boxing committee in Paris, who herself has fifteen years of practice. She sheds light on the women who come to enroll: “There are two profiles, those who will be reassured to box with each other, and those who enroll in a mixed course to be in opposition to men. If the presence of women is not new in French boxing, from now on, women are much more thoughtful. When they come, they stay. There is a real desire to practice a combat sport. »
Eight gold medals at the European Championships
Meanwhile, Méghane Amouri, 27, 2019 French boxing world champion, is preparing. This Saturday, October 7, during the women’s finals of the French Boxing World Championships in Colombes (Hauts-de-Seine), the licensee of the Levallois Sporting Club is aiming for a second title against the Bulgarian Alexandra Dimitrova. If, at the high level, male versus female fights are not authorized, diversity is obvious for her: “In my opinion, all sports are mixed and adaptable. I grew up as a boxer, telling myself that here, we train everyone. Both girl and boy, you are boxers. If there are twenty push-ups to do, everyone does them, we are all in the same boat. This is what the female audience is looking for and discovering. »
The champion, for whom savate is “the most beautiful of sports”, explains to us the role played by competitions: “Women perform in the same championships as men, with equivalent levels, this means that the “leisure” class is evolving and attracts a wider audience. » During the last European Championships (assault), at the beginning of September in Croatia, the different women’s categories won 8 gold medals. Something to make you want.
Diversity goes beyond the rings. For more than ten years, the French Federation of French Savate Boxing (FFSB) is committed through various actions such as the establishment of parity in the steering committee, or the holding, on the same evening, of women’s and men’s fights in the final of the World Championships. The FFSB even received the Femix’Sports* jury’s favorite prize in 2016 for its commitment to diversity. And the president of the Federation, Joël Dhumez, concludes with heart: “Diversity is an asset, it leads to excellence. »
* Femix’Sports is an association which brings together women and men who are experts or interested in the place of women in sport.
#French #boxing #boat