Sailing: Louise Cervera… “Sometimes you have to know how to be reasonable, to take things less to heart.”

Louise Cervera (26), a sailor supported by Banque Populaire Méditerranée, is one of the great talents of French Olympic sailing. She competed in her first Olympic Games in 2024 in Marseille, where she showed her full potential in the ILCA6 (Laser Radial) class. This year, she will be completing her engineering studies before starting her preparation for Los Angeles in 2028.

How did you start sailing?

I was six years old… I lived by the sea. I did a summer camp for children on Optimist dinghies and I loved this first sailing experience. My coach suggested that we continue the classes at the beginning of the school year. I was hooked… You can see it in the photos taken at that time, I always have a smile on my face!

You practice a solitary discipline. Why did you choose the ILCA dinghy class? What makes you prefer it to crewed boats?

I liked the fact that the Optimist dinghy was so easy to sail… Then, with the laser dinghy, there’s very little preparation and it’s practical: you just put the boat on the roof of the car and you’re on the water in no time. So there was the efficiency aspect. Then, I was a competitive person, I really didn’t like losing. It wouldn’t have been easy with my character to sail with another crew member. That way, I didn’t quarrel with my friends! But things would be easier today.

For me, sailing is a love story; I liked to be out on the water, to observe the wave conditions. I liked the physical side of it, the adventure of sailing. I then discovered the excitement of competitions, I was doing judo and playing tennis at the same time. When I was 11, I gave up sailing for a year, but I missed the sea. It was later, when I started sailing again, that I began with the laser class of boats that are now called ILCA. I had the good fortune to meet a great coach, Pierre Gueguen, who coached me from the age of 13 to 22. He taught me to be autonomous as well to master all the different aspects of performance… Above all, he instilled in me a taste for curiosity and taught me not to just listen passively to the coach but to arrive at each training session with predetermined objectives. He helped me grow both as an athlete and as a person.

You‘re a member of the Mandelieu club. Do you have a preference for the Mediterranean?

It’s where I do my best sailing, whether it’s in Hyères, Marseille, Corsica, Sardinia or Palma… It’s where I feel happy, where I can sense things. Sensations are important in our sport; I have a good sense of the wind, I enjoy sailing on the Mediterranean more, which means that I’m able to stretch my limits that little bit more…

And in general, what is your relationship with the sea?

I feel like I’m at one with the sea and the wind, capable of feeling what the sea has to give us. I try to synchronize myself with the movement of the water, to grasp the timing of the waves and move with them. I have the impression that my boat is communicating with me… It’s a dialogue, you mustn’t struggle against sea. Sometimes, of course, I refuse to listen… but when you manage to take the time to pay attention to the sea and not try to twist it to your will, you achieve a better performance.

Sailing is a mixed sport – but not completely. As a child, did you use to beat the boys? Was this something important to you?

In elite sailing, we no longer sail with the men but, up until the age of 18, we‘re allowed to race against them. It enabled me to make greater progress. They are heavier and bigger than women sailors. So, in difficult weather conditions, I had to try even harder and I was really proud to beat them. It pushes us out of our comfort zone. In training, in particular, I was up against boys who were physically stronger, which helped me to dig deeper to find my own additional resources… You have to think more to make up for this physical disadvantage, to find other solutions. And they have to find an answer to that. It’s a fine moment of exchange and sharing.

You are a student at the INSA Lyon school of engineering – how are your studies going and how do you manage to juggle your studies with high-level sport?

I have already completed eight years of study at INSA. I should finish next year… Generally speaking, the further I was from the Olympic competitions, the more classes I had and the number of classes went down as the Olympics drew closer. The school is amazing as far as timetable scheduling is concerned. I worked with tutors who organized remote classes for me… This enabled me to keep track of things while simultaneously training every day. It enables some people to avoid closing themselves off at the elite level; I helped develop this possibility and it’s something I’m proud of.

What is your specialist area of study?

In mechanical engineering: my end-of-studies project focuses on setting up a workshop for a smart factory 4.0 dedicated to providing access to innovative tools for the manufacture of parts, particularly dedicated to training… And for my end-of-studies internship, I have possible openings in sailing with the America’s Cup for the development of the boat… I also applied to François Gabart who also studied at INSA and has an organization in Concarneau in Brittany.

Many sailing champions have a scientific background – how do you explain that?

We work with fluids, moving in sails and underwater. Studying engineering allows you to acquire an understanding of fluids, which enables you to establish a connection with what you feel on the water and the underlying physical theories at work. I understand why the fact of moving forward on the boat has an impact, just like changes in the sail have an impact… It seems to me that this leads to more accurate analyses.

Where do you train and with what organization?

I set up my own organization five years ago. I have my own team with a sailing coach, coaches responsible for my physical and mental preparation, a nutritionist, a physiotherapist, a doctor as well as a fitness monitor, a tactical and strategic advisor… I finance all of this thanks to my sponsors, including the Banque Populaire Méditerranée. The Federation also helped me prepare for the Games. I train in Italy, on Lake Garda or in Marseille, at the Pôle France training center for French sailing athletes.

You competed in your first regatta in the bay of Marseille, the same place where you competed in the Olympic Games… It’s a very rare coincidence…

My first interleague regatta in Marseille was hell! I passed the first buoy in the lead, ahead of the male sailors but I hadn’t bailed the water out of my Optimist dinghy. Because of the tailwind, my boat filled up, and I capsized and couldn’t right my boat. I had to give up, and I returned to port in tears… So competing in the Games on this body of water was a great turn of events and I experienced some pretty strong emotions there. I was keen to show that I knew the water, that we were at home… that we have created something strong in the Mediterranean.

What do you remember most from this experience of the Olympic Games Paris 2024?

I won the first race, so the next day, I was wearing the yellow jersey… I had everything I needed to go out and achieve something. I managed to do what I wanted, to listen to my heart and follow my feelings. Unfortunately, I had a material breakage that disturbed me a lot… I lost 50 seconds but I regained 20 places with the mistral blowing at twenty knots… I wasted time and energy. That day cost me a lot in terms of energy and points in the general rankings. Halfway through the six days of racing, I was drained, so I do have regrets…

What are your strengths and weaknesses?

My strengths are my passion for sailing, my motivation, and also my ability to feel things on the water, to understand the wind. My weaknesses… sometimes you need to know how to be reasonable, to take things less to heart. That breakage during the Games, for example, had a negative impact on my state of mind when I should simply have been able to put it behind me.

What do you think about when you’re in doubt?

I think of the people who never believed in me, I want to show them that I’m capable… I’m small compared to my competitors, I’m 1m63; In terms of leverage, it has an impact, I was told that, considering of my lack of stature, I wouldn’t be able to make it to the top level.

Who are your sporting idols?

In my opinion, Martin Fourcade is someone who embodies both a human being and the perfect sportsman. And then Nadal and Federer, who each represent two different ways of doing things: Federer, who trains for hours to give people the impression that it’s easy, and Nadal, who never gives up, he’s on a mission…

Are you going back for another four years of preparation…?

I’m starting to get ready for the Los Angeles Games. With INSA, I wasn’t able to take a holiday, to sail on other boats… I’m going to devote myself to finishing my studies and once I graduate, I’m going to get organized for the next three years in order to arrive at the Games as a leader and not as an outsider like in 2024.

How do you imagine your career as a post-Olympic sailor? The solo Vendée Globe that you dreamed of as a child, crewed races…?

Yes, at the age of 12 I wanted to study at the INSA Lyon school of engineering and compete in the Vendée Globe like François Gabart. But what really excites me is racing in very tight formation, so I’d prefer to compete in the America’s Cup. They’re two different sports. But of course I follow the Vendée Globe.

Banque Populaire is a long-standing player in the world of sailing. How has its support been an important factor for you in 2024?

It meant that I’m not alone in the team and allowed me to discuss things with other athletes especially, as far as I’m concerned, with Jean Baptiste Bernaz who’d already competed in the Games four times. He had a lot of experience and I had a lot of questions… And then, of course, there is the financial aspect that allows me to finance my organization. Finally, at the Games, there was the ’Blue House‘ (an initiative launched by the Banque Populaire Méditerranée), it allowed our families to participate in the Games in an incredible way, it helped enormously… It was a unique moment, at home, in France, and in Marseille!

Since its creation in 2019, the Banque Populaire Méditerranée Sailing Team has had the dual objective of creating a virtuous circle around athletes in the Mediterranean region with a view to supporting them in their sporting challenges and to making them local ambassadors of sailing in order to make this sport more widely appreciated and to encourage access to the sea.