Madeleine Bayon made history in Paris with a 20m jump in the Seine on June 25. If she is “the first French woman” to the French to compete in the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series, she is still unknown to the Portuguese, despite being born in Lisbon in 1997 and having represented Portugal in a Gymnastics World Series .
“I’m French too, so it was incredible. I’ve dreamed of this ever since I saw a Red Bull show in Paris. I was a little scared, but I trained so much, so much, I was prepared,” said the 25-year-old athlete to the DN, who did the first test a month before this jump and therefore had (and still has) little experience when he jumped into the Seine with the Eiffel Tower as a witness.
After a flight of 20 meters (for men that is 27) in 3 seconds, Madeleine still dived four to five meters through the blow. The photos taken by the Red Bull photographers show her smiling after emerging: “I was happy. I felt very supported. If the jump isn’t perfect and you don’t go straight into the water, that will certainly hurt. The technical part is very important, but also the physical. We go into the water in less than a second at 80 or 85 kilometers per hour and the blow can take you to the hospital. You have to have legs, torso , groin and abdomen contract at the right time”. And without forgetting the psychological preparation. I have to feel good about myself to take the jump. Thinking I’m scared and it’s too high, but I can do it and I’m prepared. That’s training.”
Daughter of French parents who moved to Lisbon because they loved the city, Madeleine was forced by her parents to take up a sport and the choice fell on gymnastics. At Ginásio Clube Português he fell in love with acrobatic gymnastics and represented Portugal at the 2010 World Championship in Poland along with Vanessa Mendes and Mariana Fernandes. They were in fifth place.
He lived in Portugal until he was 12 years old. Then life forced her to make a decision too cruel for her age. Her parents separated and she had to choose between going to Belgium with her mother or staying with her father in Lisbon. “Actually, I didn’t want to choose my parents and I ended up going to France because of gymnastics. It was important for my parents that I continue my studies, but gymnastics already required five hours a day. When the French gymnastics federation found out about my dual nationality, he offered me a full scholarship to a school where they had adjusted hours to train, and I went there,” he told DN, explaining that this is how she became a French athlete. She was informed of the implications of her choice: she knew that she could change her flag once, but that she would never be able to participate in gymnastics competitions as a Portuguese citizen.
She was a flywheel – in the language of acrobatic gymnastics it means the one who is smallest to be lifted and pirouettes and somersaults in the air – and therefore the career had limited time and weight. When he went to college, he adhered to the zero sports policy. She studied management in London and was given a freedom she never had before, which later brought her to Madrid where she currently works at Amazon.
While telecommuting due to the covid-19 pandemic, she decided to practice a sport “so as not to go crazy”: “I thought that the pool could be a good ally for a retired sportswoman like me. I participated to an adult class in a swimming pool in Madrid, where the instructor happened to be the coach of some athletes from the Red Bull circuit and the Spanish national team.Since I always loved somersaults, I thought it must be cool to do somersaults in the water. Before I knew it I was already training somersaults with top athletes and they challenged me. I took that as a joke, for me it was like telling a young girl who is starting to play tennis that she the master roster of Roland Garros [risos].”
But the training routine started to bore her and after six months she mustered up the courage to ask the coach a question: “Do you think if I train really, really hard I can reach a Red Bull level?” The reactions were positive and Madeleine threw herself headlong into the training. In May he made his debut at the World Cup with 19th place.
After that, the invitation to be a guest athlete in a Red Bull race was a matter of going through the casting. I had to send videos of the 20 meter jumps. Before that he went to Austria to do progression training in a pool where you jump meter by meter to a maximum of 18 meters. He then spent a week in the US training and recording at least four different 20-meter jumps. He sent them to the Red Bull team, whose main selection criterion is to ensure that the jumps do not endanger the athlete himself. She was then invited to the Paris podium, the second of six races at the track.
Now follows the World Championship, in Japan, and the desire / goal to be one of the eight regular athletes on the Red Bull circuit. This is despite the cash prize of the show jumping competitions not being able to live solely off this activity unless you manage to stay on stage all the time. For the time being, he still has to take a vacation to participate.
Source: DN
