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“We are now allowed to paddle the course in Vaires-sur-Marne, near Paris, again. I'm really happy about that. I didn't train on the whitewater for two months, but I was quite lucky because I was able to borrow some gym equipment from the training centre near where I live in Rennes, so I could train really well in the gym and work on my core. I've also been running a lot. And I was really lucky because I have a river near my house within the kilometre radius that we were allowed to exercise in. At first, I wasn't sure that I was allowed to go, so I didn't paddle for around 20 days, but after that I was able to train once a day on the flat. It’s still not the best training, not being on the whitewater, but I was actually pretty lucky compared to a lot of athletes,” said 22-year-old Camille.

 

It was a long period without training on the water for last year’s European Champion in team events, “Yes, it was hard. I hadn’t had such a long break since I started kayaking, so maybe since I was 12 years old. But I was like, ‘We are athletes and it's not the biggest problem right now. There is the pandemic and there are lots of bigger problems to take care of.’ So, I understood that we were not allowed to go. Now, it feels really good to start again. I missed the feeling, and I tried to watch a lot of videos so that I didn’t forget how to do it!”

 

The Olympic Games in Tokyo have been postponed for one year which gives Camille, whose parents were also excellent canoe slalom paddlers, extra time to improve and fight for the French Olympic spot, “Yes, I think that it gives me more time to improve and be the best in my category in France before the selections, and it also gives me a chance to get closer to the best internationally. I hadn’t been selected yet, but I think I would've been able to be in the Olympic team if selection had happened normally. But maybe I wouldn’t have been able to win an Olympic medal. It would perhaps have been too hard because there are some really good women in K1 like Jess [Fox] and Ricarda [Funk]. I think they’re still a lot faster than me, but maybe having one more year can help me improve and get closer to them.”