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| PORTRAITS: |
May 2004 |
LOIC THEBAULT:
SQUASH L’HERMINE
Loic Thébault is the owner of the Squash L’Hermine, in Rennes, where the
European Teams Championship 2004 pools are played, and where everybody
meet, drunk, chatted, plotted, and one of the organisers of the event.
He has been involved in squash since 1981, but in this club for 8 years.
With his ex wife Laurence Chevalier, he has made this place a magic
enterprise for regular and competition “crème de la crème” players.
“4 years ago, I put the club up for this event, but I was told that the
club was a bit small for such an event. Then, in 2001, we organised the
European Club Championships, and it was a great success. When Aix en
Provence withdrew from the organisation of the Euro 2004, I was skiing.
I received a phone call on my mobile from Bertrand Bonnefoy, from the FFSR
who asked me if I wanted to welcome the event in the club. I told him “I
need to think about it”, switched off, paused for 3 seconds, and dialled
back. “OK” I said.
We have been working on this event for a year now, and the last month has
been extremely hard. The day before the beginning of the competion was the
worst day, with the arrival of all the teams and personnel, but everything
run smoothly.
I know that the 100 volunteers will remember this event as long as they’ll
live," said Loic. "It was beautiful, a lot of preparation, but the result
worth it. And to the people from the squash circuit who came to me to
congratulate me on the quality of the event, I say 'this should be the
norm’.
If we want to expand our sport to the next level, that’s the way to treat
the athletes who work very hard to entertain the audience."
He must have done something right, as EVERYBODY held the Rennes European
Championship as on the best squash event ever! |
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MORE
PORTRAITS:
[ Entente Cordiale ] [ Celine Lincou ] [ Loic Thebault ] [ Gregory Gaultier ] [ David Pearson ] [ Isabelle Stoehr ] [ Adrian Grant ] |
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