Paris 2024 Olympics: “Get ready, fasten your hats”, warns Lauriane Nolot in the lead before her sailing final on Thursday

Lauriane Nolot à une victoire de la médaille d'or. MAXPPP – SEBASTIEN NOGIER

The Frenchwoman will compete in the kite-foil final on Thursday, August 8th, she only needs to win one round to win the gold medal.

We had the famous waiting game, but there is not even a round, is it frustrating once again ?

It's cool, we did a little training on the water. In all we stayed in the water for an hour and a half, but it's true that the wind played tricks on us.

We didn't even leave with the big tarpaulins, for once we said great, there's air. And when we got up there, the wind started to drop, we went back in to change sails and then in the end, when we left again, it continued to drop. The committee tried to send the boys, but in the middle of the round, there were less than 4 knots, the boys couldn't even tack anymore. We came back, we waited until now, and there you go, day over. Bye!

You are the leader so the medals are almost assured…

Yes, that's it, so that was the most stressful day of my “life” until now, because of course I was the leader, so I said to myself, in reality if it doesn't go well, it's fine with me, we'll stay like that. Now I'm really happy to come home first tomorrow in the final, it's a great advantage that I have, it's almost a guaranteed medal, so that's already a big point off, and that's it, tomorrow I'll have to do what I usually do, do a round, win it, and thank you, goodbye.

You know that by heart, does that add some pressure ?

No, actually, what scared me was that I knew we weren't going to validate many rounds, and it scared me to potentially get into the semi-finals, and I'm not used to doing them. I'm more used to this format, to getting into the finalists, and so I'm happy, it doesn't take me out of my comfort zone, I'm used to it, so it gives me confidence, it's cool.

And with good conditions ?

And with good conditions, because normally tomorrow we will have wind, well, in the harbor of Marseille there will be wind, so get ready, tie your hats.

Have you known worse conditions like that in look ?

We have rarely experienced such rotten conditions, honestly. We know that as soon as a competition starts, we always know that the wind likes to play tricks on us, but there it has been two weeks that the wind has not been very clement, and then in the end, we had an incredible test event last year, but we had done it at the beginning of July, so it was not yet the same heat as there is now, and I think that now, being in a heatwave, etc., it does not necessarily help the wind to come in. So that's life, we were still able to do some heats, we were able to validate the format, so that tomorrow we can go into final mode, so that's cool.

What's the program for the evening before a final ?

I don't know, honestly, I'm going to go hang out with my French friends, eat, watch a movie, go to bed, and that's it. I'm not going to do anything crazy.

We still have the impression that if we can't roll out a carpet on the water, it's really rolled out for you ?

I don't know. Honestly, I try to take it day by day, and tomorrow I'll give it my best shot, and I think I'll be at 3,000% of my ability, and we'll see if it works or not. I hope so anyway.

We were talking with your coach, she said that one of your great qualities is that you were a little “crazy” when you're on the board.

That's one of my qualities.

Where does that come from, the fact of disconnecting a little when you're on the water ?

I think it's just my nature, I like sports with speed, it's also something that frustrated me a little this week, it's that we only had light conditions, where in the end, we were really into technique, and we weren't necessarily able to go all out like we usually do, so that was a little frustrating.

I don't know, I love it, I love the sensations it gives me, and it's my passion, so I'm happy.

We know that you like to be in competition, to devour others, the fact of training with the boys, all that too, for example, it's part of you ?

Yes, I think that there is also a small part of me, a small part of my ego, which makes that when I go to the water to race, inevitably I want to win, and I am a very bad loser, so I have to win…

The final, tomorrow, is scheduled quite late, normally, after 3pm, can that play a role, if it's late, if it's a long wait, can that play its role ?

No, almost, in the end, I prefer to know that we are scheduled late, rather than that we are scheduled at noon, rather than waiting three hours and going around in circles. At least, I know that I can plan my day around that, I will be able to eat peacefully at noon, because there, every day, we set at noon, I won't explain, to eat at noon or to try to put something in the stomach, it's complicated, after that, it's cool, at least we're clear, you know.

We just saw Camille Lecointre and Jérémy Mion pass behind you, you can feel the whole French team supporting you?

Ah well yes, there, of course, being the last ones, the advantage we have is that there, they've almost all finished, and so all the energy they have, it's for us. Now, it's great, we feel that they support us, they are there, they will stay until the end, and in any case, it's an adventure that we all lived together, and these are memories that remain engraved forever, so I think it's important to have this kind of team, anyway.