Démare releases his second book on Wednesday and talks about his wife's depression

Thomas Siniecki, Media365: published on Tuesday November 5, 2024 at 6:14 p.m.

This is enough to explain a little better, without a doubt, Arnaud Démare's difficult season upon his arrival at Arkea – BB Hotels.

Arnaud Démare, as he confides to our colleagues from Le Parisien, was to tell about his change of team, his fatherhood and his daily life as a high-level athlete, in the book A Year in My Wheel 2 (the first was published ago three years, at the end of 2021). Except that given his results, “we had the impression that I was only complaining”: “I struggled so much that I told myself that the book would not even come out. We expect an athlete to “he wins, that was the diary of a loser. In April and May, I said nothing more and it was Morgane who spoke.

“It’s not an easy life. I felt guilty”

Morgane is his wife, suffering from depression and of whom the Picard sprinter has never spoken this season in order to reveal what inevitably weighed on him. She finds, on the contrary, “that we should not hide things and explain why he was less well”: “I was in the middle of severe depression, no longer liked anything or wanted anything. I was hospitalized near three months.” Her husband specifies that she wanted to show many women that there is no shame in being depressed, after having refused help when she wanted to lead her triple life: wife of a champion, mother of an 18 month old child (Margaux) and professional podiatrist.

“I felt like I was stopping him from winning. He has a demanding job and didn't need the emotional burden added by my condition.” He replied that he couldn't let go of the bike: “She would have felt even more guilty. I also told myself that, later, my daughter would have thought that it was her birth that had stopped her dad's career. On the contrary , I wanted to win a race for her.” It took time but it finally happened, in August (fourth stage of the Tour Poitou-Charentes) then in September (Paris-Chauny) to reach a total of 98 career successes. “There, we won the race together,” remembers Morgane. During all this time, Arnaud did not want to show his weakness as a good sportsman, or at least he thought so: “I wanted to show you that I was not giving up (…) Our profession puts us under cover, that's not the case. It's not an easy life that I impose on him. I felt guilty for his depression. As you will have understood, this book is off the beaten track.