Coline Flavin knows no limits, the resident of CREPS de Bordeaux became French Senior modern pentathlon champion at the age of 18 on December 1 in Perpignan. Its 2024 results were remarkable. She obtained three medals at the last U19 Worlds: bronze in the individual and team, silver in the mixed relay. This year, Coline Flavin was also team world champion in the higher category and 9th individually in these U22 Worlds. The French Modern Pentathlon Federation had the honor of speaking by telephone with Coline Flavin and her coach in Bordeaux Xavier Cugat two weeks ago. We discovered a young athlete who takes great pleasure in doing pentathlon, she combines fun with real ambition and reflection to improve herself on a daily basis.
Coline, you became French Senior champion. What do you feel after this title?
Coline Flavin; It was cool, it was a little challenge, I found myself jumping categories as a first year cadet.
Did you celebrate this title?
CF – No, I was more in classes. In fact, since I'm in competition period, I'm more in classes than having fun celebrating my competition results. My parents were very happy.
I went back to see them quickly. I returned home quickly on Monday but I have my medical exam coming up, my mind is more on revising than celebrating and there is the Bordeaux circuit coming up (announce date)
Xavier Cugat – if she didn't win this title, it wasn't an end in itself, it was good to win it, it was a goal with the change of discipline.
C.F – It's only the beginning of the season
X.C – There was a lot of fatigue as you had done a national fencing circuit, it was hard to jump around with exhaustion.
CF – It's still a Senior title, all that's missing is the Juniors and I would have all the national titles. (the French U22 Championships will take place on May 3 in Saint-Maur-des-Fossés
What was your goal before this competition?
C.F – Setting up my shooting sequences above all and setting up my fencing game as I had succeeded during the national epee circuit for that and afterwards in swimming and running we had done a lot of specific work, I did not think that We could get results straight away, the objective in these two disciplines was to do the best with the current form.
Was there any specific physical preparation for this competition?
CF – No, as with all competitions, we are there to win anyway. Whether for a regional title, whether for a national or world title.
XC – Or even in training! (Laughs)
Let's now approach these French Championships, you performed exceptional fencing, 27 victories and 9 defeats, what were your feelings with the epee?
CF: Before in training, it was a bit complicated, I needed to let the horses go, but as soon as the competition started straight away it went well.
XC – I needed to raise my voice during the week. Coline had frustration with certain actions and misunderstanding which were corrected with videos which were really useful.
CF – In competition, we no longer think about 36,000 things, we simply act.
Afterwards you negotiated the obstacle course perfectly with the 2nd time of the French behind Mathilde Derval. How did you approach this event that you knew from having competed in the European Championships and World Championships in the youth categories?
CF – The course, sometimes I'm very stressed but I like it, it's fun, I like swinging on the rings, I'm having fun. I like the course so I didn't have any more pressure than that and it went well.
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– training in this event we didn't want to take any risks, we wanted her to have an average performance, she could go faster. We're just doing weight training at the moment.
CF – I've been doing the same pattern for the course for a year and a half, I haven't necessarily improved my passages over the obstacles. I want to try lots of things, but I can't do it, I'm not improving.
XC – You are still improving a little, our training is during the European and World Championships.
CF – We arrive the day before the competition and we train.
Xavier told me that you were disappointed with your swimming, can you tell us?
CF – There is not much to say about this performance, we debriefed, I was not satisfied but it takes time to progress.
The specificity of these French Championships is that you finish the swimming series at the start of the evening on Saturday to finish the Laser Run on Sunday morning. On Saturday evening, you were in the lead, you were 29 seconds ahead of Rebecca Castaudi, 32 over Mathilde Derval, 38 over Jessye Gomesse. Was the evening before the Laser Run not too stressful knowing that you had a first French Senior champion title within reach?
CF – This question was asked to me after the competition but at the time, I was thinking more about going after the German ahead in the Open ranking.
XC – For me, it was Laura Heredia who scared me and it didn't fail.
CF – I didn’t know her. in Bordeaux, we learned to first do our Laser Run and we will see at the end where we are placed, but of course I had in mind that behind me I had planes, but I wanted to look more in front than behind.
Tell us about this Laser Run, you had a good running pace and no shooting failures, were you totally satisfied?
CF – The race wasn't incredible, there was some fatigue, but it was good for the start of the season. The shot is in place, it's nice.
What are your next goals?
CF – In ten days, there is the first CN, we will do what we can do and we will see and then there is another Circuit and continue to do a fencing circuit. I have had very good results so far (table of 8 and table of 16).
Now we're going to try to find out a little more about you. How did you get into pentathlon and at what age?
CF – There was Antony's club near my house (Coline Flavin is from Massy) so that's how I started pentathlon. I wasn't part of the club, but I did initiations from time to time alongside the triathlon. I arrived at the Pôle de Bordeaux at 14 years old
Did you immediately like the pentathlon?
CF – Yes, it allows you to do sports all day and not have a lot of classes, that's what I liked, that's why I stuck with it.
Now what would you say to young girls who want to start playing sports? why should we do pentathlon more than any other sport?
CF – Because it's a super versatile sport, we develop all our physical qualities, we look for resources that we don't think we have and then we learn a lot about ourselves too.
Do you have any passions?
C.F – Sports and I like to draw from time to time. But any type of sport: Climbing, circus, fencing. Mostly doing it, but I like watching too.
Do you have a ritual before your tests?
CF – No, not too much because if I start falling into that, I’ll go too far (laughs)
We thank Coline Flavin for her availability and Xavier Cugat who helped set up this interview.
Photo credit: La Timeline/ Louison Cazaly (The Timeline is an account that we advise you to follow on Instagram to have quality photos and videos on modern pentathlon)
