the secret that makes the Swiss team win comes from Reims

A company from Reims (Marne) has developed a range of treatments based on cryotherapy (cold treatment) and intended in particular for athletes: the devices are loaded on board a truck. He traveled to Stuttgart, Germany, where the Swiss team playing in the 2024 European Football Championship is stationed.

It’s going to be a bit cold, but you won’t want to wear a sweater. Because when you benefit from cryotherapy, it’s the cold that helps to reduce pain or physical recovery.

The Swiss selection for the 2024 European Football Championship (Euro) is currently based in Stuttgart (Baden-Württemberg, Germany). They benefit from it after their training sessions and matches. And that may be what makes them win! The Swiss are qualified for the quarter-finals, they beat Italy in the previous round (see the stadium on the map below).

The concept is supported by a company in the Reims area (Marne), Cryotera OTW (On The Way), founded by twins Guillaume and Bastien Bouchet. France 3 Champagne-Ardenne spoke about it just before their participation in the Franchise show in Paris, mid-March.

It was there that they came into contact with the interested Swiss team and provided them with their expertise. One of the co-founders, Bastien Bouchet, explained to us the principle of their services. “In 2017, we created a center in Reims. We franchised our concept in 2019. Today, we soon have 21 centers in operation throughout France.”

The world of sport benefits, but not only that. “We have a research center and a major activity on health: improvement of quality of life, reduction of pain.” The company also works on diets and sleep disorders. “It’s really a concept in the cold, in health, in sport, and in aesthetics.”

The company was able to notice the presence “high-level athletes” in the cities where it has opened centers, in partnership with the Center for Resources, Expertise and Sports Performance (Creps). “Except that we had difficulty moving around. Either the athletes came to us or they didn’t: we couldn’t go to the site. The idea with this truck is that we can now be mobile We have therefore responded to the need for mobility, and we can intervene directly at the heart of the competitions. This is why we are called, this is what we are asked for: an on-site presence, because it is. very rare to have everything on site in competition.”

The semi-trailer houses a real “mobile recovery center”. It is deployed within the Swiss base camp, for Euro 2024. “This is the first major event we are participating in.” Each practice is validated in advance with the team’s supervision. “We supported them before the competition, at the end of the preparation, during the competition with care between matches. This allows them to recover well. The innovation lies in the fact that we managed to integrate into this system: an electric cryotherapy chamber – this did not exist on a global scale until now – and other services. To allow physical recovery and act on muscle pain, aches, healing. This is a tool purely dedicated to sport.”

If you play in the Swiss team, you can benefit from a stay in this cryotherapy chamber, but also from photobiomodulation (laser therapy) or infratherapy (infrared sauna). “Each tool has its virtues.” This is in order to“speed up recovery: if you recover faster, you get injured less”These are the two priority objectives. “We will also work on small muscle tears to be able to return to physical activity more quickly.” What to have “optimal physical condition” and facilitate “the success of sporting objectives”.

Such use of cold did not come out of nowhere. “PSG has an electric cryotherapy chamber. Marseille too. All the English clubs have one… So it’s quite well-known. In France, the Insep [Institut national du sport, de l’expertise, et de la performance; NDLR] was the first center to have a cryo chamber. And the ancestor of this room is the cold bath of rugby players, when we saw them put a trash can filled with water.” Cryotera has such a room in its center in Bezannes, in the suburbs of Reims.

If you have a bump, you put an ice cube.

Bastien Bouchet, co-founder of Cryotera

“We all know the principle of cold, its anti-inflammatory properties. If you have a bump, you put an ice cube on it. If your legs hurt, you can put yourself under cold water in the shower. The cold helps to optimize blood circulation.” We’re talking about vasoconstriction, which is not just a word that we would like to place in Scrabble. “And the technologies have improved over the years, it acts on the whole body and there is no nitrogen, so no risk of burns. We work on the whole body, from the neck to the ankles. ” Scientific studies on cryotherapy are published by “the French research center, a medical organization, and a state-approved training center”.

This use of cold, “for pain and circulation, is known and used by ordinary people. It has been pushed with more advanced and advanced technologies, quite expensive. This explains why today, it is not very developed in the sector amateur sport, for example.” Mobile hardware “worth between 250,000 and 300,000 euros, with the semi-trailer”. Which explains why the competition has not yet really taken hold of the concept. “It’s a barrier: we had to overcome technological barriers by managing to put everything on a small surface, make it mobile, make it work… It was a whole technological research challenge and development.”

“Such an investment is not accessible to everyone either. This is why federations or national teams, even with substantial budgets, prefer to call on structures like ours rather than having to invest in This equipment is ultimately cheaper to rent.” The company therefore uses franchising as a business model. The Swiss example should encourage other structures to call on Cryotera OTW. In particular for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games…