It is the story of a ménage à quatre, with all the honour, the heartbeats and the breathing of the Paralympics mixed in. Sunday 1Ahem In September, triathlete Thibaut Rigaudeau and his guide Cyril Viennot will set off from the floating pontoon at the foot of the Pont Alexandre III in the PTVI (visually impaired) category for a 750m freestyle race, a 20km bike race and a 5km run. Five minutes later, Thibaut Rigaudeau’s partner, Héloïse Courvoisier, will also dive into the Seine, guided by… Anne Henriet, Cyril Viennot’s wife.
At the beginning, before the hearts were joined, only the male partner was literally “tied”, joined by an 80-centimetre elastic band for swimming and tied at the waist by a 50-centimetre rope for running. After a long career as a triathlete, Cyril Viennot, world long-distance champion in 2015, decided to prolong the adventure as a duo, encouraged by the French Triathlon Federation. In the summer of 2019, he became Thibaut Rigaudeau’s guide. The former player of the French blind football team – he suffers from a genetic disease, retinitis pigmentosa – has just switched to triathlon after tearing his cruciate ligaments.
“Our teammate goes a little further than just sport because he knows my whole family, I know his whole family. We’ve already gone on holiday together, so we know each other very well.”said Cyril Viennot on Monday 26 August at the Club France, during the paratriathlon press conference on the sidelines of the Paralympic Games.
“They got into the game”
Then comes the Covid-19 pandemic. At the end of the lockdown, when Héloïse Courvoisier joins her training partner in the Jura, where the Viennot-Henriets are based, the two sporting couples get along well. Thibaut Rigaudeau already has his own idea in mind. In July 2020, his dear and tender Héloïse Courvoisier, who was born with retinoblastoma (a retinal cancer), unwrapped a tandem as a birthday present.
The 27-year-old, who has rowed at a high level, is trying it out with Anne Henriet (43), a former triathlete. “They got into the game and three weeks later they decided to compete in the French championship together.”, follows Thibaut Rigaudeau. “Basically there was no ambition, it was a challenge, adds Cyril Viennot, who has become the coach of the women’s pair. And since Anne had a good level in triathlon, it was logical that she guide Héloïse because we often met outside of triathlon. And there it was, it happened very, very quickly for them and we were quickly together during the selections of the French team. » When the duos are not training, they train separately. In Boulogne-Billancourt (Hauts-de-Seine) for the Courvoisier-Rigaudeau couple, in Dole (Jura) for the Henriet-Viennot couple.
Whoever says power four for triathlon, says meticulous daily organization, something natural when you are a triathlete. “Cyril and Anne have two children. [de 13 et 9 ans]So to keep them, this year we did a staggered internship, explains Thibaut Rigaudeau, who will celebrate his 34th birthday on September 4. We tried to balance everyone’s lives a bit, it was quite stimulating for everyone because the two of us and the four of us continued to progress. »
A rather technical Parisian route
Play the Games at home with four people, “It’s very special, but the race is even more so. [du 2 septembre] focus, we think less about it because we are increasingly focused on performance”, Cyril Viennot adds. At the last Games, in Tokyo in 2021, the pair finished on the foot of the podium and have been firmly established in the world Top 3 for three years now. Their titles of vice-world champions in 2022 and 2023 “allow” dream of a medal, even if your category is very competitive. “It plays in a few seconds, adds the 42-year-old guide. So we know that if we miss a transition, for example, we can lose a spot very quickly. »
Their peers are under less pressure from their Paralympic debut. Sixth at the 2023 European Championships in Madrid, Héloïse Courvoisier and Anne Henriet are certainly outsiders, but the Parisian course, quite technical with its formidable cobblestones, could well shake things up.
The ideal scenario would be “Everyone will get a medal, that’s for sure. After that, it won’t be easy. And then, selfishly, I’d rather they miss out than us!”Cyril Viennot laughs. The two women have not yet had their last word. In a setting that is as imperial as it is romantic, beware of flashbacks.
