Baptiste is a board sports enthusiast: “Around 10-12 years old, I tried them all. Roller skating, skating, surfing, snowboarding… I loved the sensations. » It is with his skateboard that he will stand out in pole vaulting. “During training in 2012, for fun, I said to a friend: ‘I’m going to try jumping off my skateboard!’ » » Without him knowing it, Baptiste’s career has just taken an unexpected trajectory.
This native of Clermont, 39 years old today, has participated as a pole vaulter in all the major international athletics competitions in the youth categories. “My coaches often told me that I had great potential,” he recalls.
The athlete missed the podium at the French championships in 2016. A medal would have allowed him to access the Rio Olympic Games: “I was very disappointed, but, in reality, I gave my maximum. »
With a personal best of 5.65 m, he still won the gold medal at the Francophonie Games in 2017 in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. During his last two participations in the French championships in 2018 and 2019, indoors, the pole vaulter offered himself a last stand by climbing onto the podium.
A record at 6 meters 17
It was at this time, in 2017 precisely, that he got back on his skateboard with a pole in his hand. “I always loved skateboarding, I collected them at home,” Baptiste recalls. In 2013, it was by pushing the board with his feet that he passed a bar at 5.20 m. This time, he contacted a supplier of electric skateboards: “At first, they were too powerful, he laughs today. I almost killed myself several times! I couldn’t control them. »
Then the Auvergne met the Evolve brand, which provided him with a board mainly made of bamboo weighing, lithium batteries included, 12 kilos. The two 1,500 watt batteries help the rider move forward. Skateboarding has a top speed of 30 kilometers per hour, and a movement of 9 meters per second – less than professional pole vaulters, who soar at more than 10 meters per second.
The technique of pole vaulting remains the same as that of classic pole vaulting. The difference is found (a little) in the few centimeters gained with the height of the skateboard and especially in the constant speed allowed by the batteries during the run-up. Stable trajectory at constant speed: there is no longer any loss of energy in this phase of the jump.
With his electric skateboard, Baptiste realizes the possibilities available to him: “I said to myself: “Why not pass the symbolic bar of 6 meters? » We all dream of it. » A bar already crossed in training. During a show in 2017 in Clermont-Ferrand, he flew over 5.70 m, which corresponds to the “Olympic minimums” for a traditional jump.
“All the greatest pole vaulters were there”
After setting an indoor world record for the Guinness Book in 2018, his adventures as a skateboarder-pole vaulter took him to a demonstration at the Jockgrim meeting in Germany the same year. “All the greatest pole vaulters were there. My daughter was born three months before, I had just obtained my physiotherapy diploma. Everything was there. » Baptiste will become the highest man in the world.
At the time, Renaud Lavillenie’s record was 6.16 m. By taking his run-up with his skateboard, Baptiste will jump 6.17 m. No man in history had jumped so high with a pole. “I absolutely wanted to pass this bar, for the symbol. » Since then, Swede Armand Duplantis has set several new world records in the “classic” pole vault above 6.20 m, the latest in April this year, at 6.24 m.
His personal best in skateboarding is 6 meters 17.
Quentin Top/”South West”
Quentin Top/”South West”
Baptiste earned the respect of the greatest pole vaulting champions while at the beginning “some considered pole vaulting as a circus”
Feet on the ground
At the same time, Baptiste studied physiotherapy. “I wanted to have my back,” he admits. Pole vaulter, if you’re not in the top ten in the world, you’re just surviving. » From now on, he works in a practice in Laroin, near Pau. “After seven years in Paris, I didn’t want my children to grow up there. My wife and I decided to settle in Béarn. » The skateboarder-pole vaulter trains in Bordeaux, in Tarnos, in the Landes, or, occasionally, at the André-Lavie stadium, within the Palois University Club. “I hope to find funding to offer the club new equipment, because it really needs it. »
The athlete always rubs shoulders with the greatest pole vaulters in the world. “One day, Renaud (Lavillenie) asked me to come and do a demonstration during his event in Clermont-Ferrand, the All Star Perche,” remembers Baptiste, who earned the respect of the greatest champions of the discipline while At the beginning “some considered pole skating as a circus”.
A few months before the Paris Olympics, he begins to dream. “If I was offered a concrete, well-constructed project, I would obviously be up for it. Skateboarding and pole vaulting are two Olympic disciplines, that would be ideal. »
