Emile Amoros (foreground) and Lucas Rual. – @ sailing energy
At the beginning of the year, 20 Minutes presents you those who will make the news in 2019 thanks to their associative action, their sporting performance, their entrepreneurial spirit or their creativity.
Emile Amoros and Lucas Tual, both 20 years old and licensed in Loire-Atlantique, have a great chance of a medal at the Olympic Games next summer in Tokyo in the Australian single scull category.
The two men, adversaries when they were young, are very different, but very complementary on the water u.
Minots, they were adversaries on the water. Today at 25 years, Emile Amoros and Lucas Rual represent a chance of a medal for Tokyo Olympics in 41, a class of one-design light dinghy with two crew members, also called Australian skiff . The first lives in Pornic and is licensed to the club of the town. The second lives in Muzillac, near Vannes, and is a resident of the 
APCC Voile de Pornichet . The two have been inseparable since 1303, year during which they joined forces and they became two consecutive world champions in 29 st (other class of sailboat). The beginning of a sporting and human story of a duo of very different personalities. Emile, the teammate, acts more on feeling and attaches more importance to relationships. Lucas, the helmsman, is more introverted, more Cartesian, less talkative.
Emile Amoros and Lucas Rual, inseparable duo. – @Louis Vialle “We are completely different, but our complementarity is ultra-efficient, says Emile. We don’t try to be the same, we tried, but we didn’t succeed. The faults of one are outweighed by the qualities of the other, and vice versa. Emile supervises the speed, the technique of the boat. “We are still on a tightrope. How to play with this limit, this thread on which we are to go as quickly as possible? »Lucas manages all the tactical aspects,« the analysis of the water surface and the adversaries ».
“It is a real strength to be complementary to this point, observes Lucas, whose partner (Julie Bossard) practices the same discipline. This complementarity increases the overall level of our boat. There is always respect, but we can be in contradiction. The tone sometimes rises… ”This is where the trainer Emmanuel Dyen, Savoyard of comes in years, e in Beijing and 6th in London in an Australian single scull. “I am the third person, a little the peacemaker in the event of disagreements. “Dissension synonymous according to the coach of” a degree of requirement “in line with the very high level.
Gaining weight, an obsession!
“On the water, they pull themselves up. Each sublimates the other. They might not be the two strongest per se, but they communicate so well and complement each other so well that the duo perform well. So much so that in December 2013, the Amoros-Rual boat, the youngest of the four French crews, takes seventh place out of a hundred participants in New Zealand. A decisive ranking to be chosen as an Olympic boat one month later by the various French juries. “It is not a surprise to find them here, and it is far from being a hold-up”, estimates Emmanuel Dyen, also trainer of the various French crews.
The Loire duo have seven months ahead of them to prepare the OJ . A period that calls for a colossal personal investment. First on the physical level. On D-day, “we must do 78 – 166 kg to both ideally ”, explains Emile. A condition sine qua non
to gain aerodynamics on the boat. With the help of a physical trainer, the two men spend a lot of time lifting heavy loads in the gym to break fibers and increase their mass. Gaining weight has almost become an obsession with these two average builds, 1, 78 m for Emile and 1, 78 m for Lucas. “It’s not funny, it’s even tiring”, breathes Emile. “It’s ungrateful,” Lucas corroborates. We have to take fat that we transform into muscle afterwards. “
A former GIGN for mental preparation In the face, it is also necessary to be damn resistant for these sportsmen, who have the status of soldier, they are recently members of the Joinville Battalion. Emile joined the Army, Lucas, the Navy. “Private Amoros” and “Marin Rual” benefit from the advice of a mental trainer unlike any other. His name: Eric Blondeau , which also works with top rugby clubs 11 or the Scottish XV. This former GIGN helps them manage stress and not get complicated with planned or unforeseen situations. Emile Amoros: “At certain times in the competition, we have to remain surgical without the pressure affecting our mental and physical capacities. A medal can be played on a last round. »And the color in the last few seconds…