Elise Marc, the chameleon of triathlon

All triathletes will tell you that triathlon is by definition a sport of adaptation, where you have to know how to juggle between three disciplines – swimming, cycling and running – as different as they are demanding. Even more so with the vagaries of the weather, requiring you to tame the currents and waves and avoid the pitfalls of wet or cobbled roads. Elise Marc has sharpened this ability to play the chameleon a little more since her category “disappeared” from the Paralympic Games.

The triple para triathlon world champion and reigning European champion usually competes on the world circuit in the PTS3 category – for “para triathlon standing 3”, for athletes with significant disabilities but who can compete standing up. In Paris, she will start on Monday, September 2, in the category above (PTS4). Hers was not selected “simply because there aren’t enough people”explains the 36-year-old woman who had her legs amputated below the knees on both sides, after an accident that she does not wish to dwell on, when she was 17.

To complete the 750 m swim, 20 km cycle and 5 km run, her handicap is more penalizing than that of her new competitors. “Normally, in PTS4, they are “simple” amputees, so only on one side. Where I lose the most time is on the swimming part and the first transition”, time to put on his two prostheses after getting out of the water and before getting on his bike.

Already in Tokyo, in 2021, his category was not on the menu of the Games. “It was a big disappointment, concedes the civil engineer, who would have had the possibility of being upgraded in the PTS5, i.e. two categories of difference. It was too much, I didn’t even want to try. I said to myself: “I might as well take advantage of it to discover another discipline.” That’s why I started with rowing first. She was crowned indoor rowing world champion in her category, but after a year and a half, she grew tired of it.

“Waste as little time as possible”

Then comes the lockdown. The home trainer becomes her best ally and, at the same time, the Games are postponed by a year. The idea of ​​para cycling springs to mind at that moment. Her second place at the para cycling world championships secures her ticket to Tokyo in this sport, where she places tenth in the road race and twelfth in the time trial. “The selection was already a victory in itself, puts this pioneer into perspective, fifth in the first para triathlon event in the history of the Paralympic Games, in Rio in 2016. Living in another collective, seeing another way of training, it nourished me, everything I was able to work on [en para cyclisme] serves me today.”

In Japan, in reality, her mind is already 10,000 kilometers away. For Paris 2024, Elise Marc intends to reconnect with her first loves, by lining up for the triathlon. She is getting back into it 100%. Swimming has long been her strong point, then cycling. Now it is running. “This is really where I have a chance to get back to the front of the race. My mindset on the swim and the bike is to lose as little time as possible compared to the competition.”says the resident of the Boulouris Center for Resources, Expertise and Sports Performance, in Saint-Raphaël (Var), where she is trained by Nicolas Becker.

In the summer of 2023, during the test eventdress rehearsal before the Games, Elise Marc crossed the Alexandre-III bridge in second place. “It shows that I have a good card to play.” And, once again, she has a sense of adaptation. The swim had been cancelled because of the quality of the water in the Seine and the event had been transformed into a duathlon.