“I had a plan in mind: I’ll do the Paris Games and have a baby afterwards… But life shows you that you’re not the one who decides all the time.” Camille Serme, former French number 1 squash player, bursts out laughing. As in Sydney in 2000 and London in 2012, her sport failed. Despite a new candidacy, squash will not be on the program for the Paris Olympics. A regret but not a tragedy for the former world number 2. Deprived of her Olympic dream, the Créteil native continued her brilliant career. She reached the rank of world number 2 before seriously injuring her Achilles tendon in 2022. The injury that was too much. “I was mentally tired,” she remembers. So Camille Serme ended her career at 33 and became the mother of little Jude.
“Without the Games, I don’t think I would have come back”
Squash could have remained in the memory section except that on October 16, an unexpected event turned his life upside down. His sport will be on the program of the next Games in Los Angeles in 2028, like four other disciplines (cricket, baseball/softball, flag football and lacrosse, a team sport derived from Native American cultures). “A few days before our daughter was born, we found out that squash was entering the Olympics. My partner told me: “It would be a shame not to try and go.” Without the Games, I don’t think I would have come back.”
She is back, to the great joy of her loved ones and her coach: “What started as a joke has become obvious to her,” says Philippe Signoret, national coach and director of the Paris Tournament for which Camille Serme qualified this Friday. At 35, the squash player is back on a mission. Mission LA. With the Olympic dream in mind. “For years I had seen squash fail to enter the Olympic program,” says the player who will be 39 in 2028. “It was very unexpected for me. It’s a great surprise. I think it’s deserved. It’s a very spectacular sport, very complete. Mentally it’s like a game of chess. You always have to think about where to put the ball.”
Competitor and mother
After playing two tournaments while waiting to enter the main draw of the Paris tournament on Sunday at the Cirque d’Hiver against the world number 1, the Egyptian Elsherbini Nour, Camille Serme is ranked 323rd in the world. She is gradually getting her feelings back. In search of points, the Parisian does not want to rush things. “We have four years to prepare,” she reminds us. Her coach wants to believe in her: “She must continue what she does very well,” says Philippe Signoret. “She has kept her professionalism, which has always been her trademark. She is adding things like finding very good legs to catch difficult balls.”
Despite her ambitions and determination to return to the top, the former queen of French squash must also learn to manage her role as a mother as best she can. Before the Paris Olympics, the desire of French judo star Clarisse Agbegnenou to have her child with her in the Olympic village did not leave her indifferent: “We are very involved with the father,” she rejoices. “We would like something to be put in place for the parents more than just for the mothers.” But Camille Serme does not want to think about it too much for the moment. Four years before the Games, she first wants to get back to a “decent ranking.” And the champion sums it up with a big smile: “It will be a great adventure no matter what.”
- RMC Sport
