Laura Tarantola, recent highlights and successes: Olympic qualification and silver medal in Poznan!

📷 BeureyStudio

Hello AMEG Group,

I hope you're well...

A lot has happened in the last few weeks... Starting with: THE OLYMPIIIIIIIC QUALIFICATION !!!!! 🇫🇷

On May 21, we won our precious quota to take part in the Paris Olympics this summer. The stakes were high and the pressure intense, but we managed to stay focused and in our element to deliver a superb race that placed us 1st. We finished ahead of the Greeks, who took the second quota, and eliminated the Italians (Olympic champions!!) and the Australians in particular. We're more than happy with this result. It was a magical competition, and I was lucky enough to have lots of family and friends present throughout, which made it all the more unforgettable. The sensations with Claire were truly incredible, and the staff managed to get us into top form to succeed in these races. Finishing ahead of the Greeks is a great benchmark, as they denied us two podiums last year and finished ahead of us at the Worlds. I'm delighted to show that we're back!

Since then, I've had a few days off to enjoy and rest. I didn't expect to experience such a strong "decompression", but it's obvious that when you climb very high, there's also a descent... We had to accept that the body was really tired and give it time to regenerate. We then went back to France for a training camp to prepare for Poznan, the 3rd stage of the World Cup. The challenge here was to get our bearings despite our relative post-Lucerne fitness levels.

Back from Poznan with a beautiful silver medal around her neck!

We're delighted to be back on the World Cup circuit, and we've been able to get some valuable pointers on the competition and our own level. We were missing a few nations, but having the New Zealanders and the Poles allowed us to compare ourselves at the time.

We had a great first race, which enabled us to go straight through to the A Final without having to go through the repechages. In the final, we were delighted to finally be back on an international podium! Beating the Poles was a great revenge for last year, when they were ahead of us at the Worlds. Of course, we set out to win and we would have liked to be closer to the Neoz (4 seconds), but we didn't manage to be at our best. The feedback and rhythm weren't as good as they sometimes were, and at this level we couldn't afford not to be impeccable. Too bad, no time to think about it, it's done. The main objective of coming here to get our bearings is validated, and coming back a little frustrated but with clearly identified areas for improvement is perhaps the best way to approach the next few weeks.

A week focused on recovery ++ awaits me, with 4 days off to enjoy my family and friends and recharge my batteries 100% before tackling the home stretch. The aim is to achieve optimum recovery from all the fatigue accumulated over the last few weeks. We went on after Lucerne and that was the goal, now it's a matter of recovering for a few days to return to training next Monday in optimum shape and ready to take on the final block of work.

We'll be off to Temple sur Lot next Monday on a "mission" with the whole French team for 5 weeks, until the Olympic Games which start for us on July 28.

5 weeks is a short time, and at the same time there's plenty of time to shave off precious seconds if things are done rigorously and intelligently. Every day counts, at home and at work. You can count on me to do my best, so that we can celebrate something at the beginning of August! 😉

The best is yet to come!

See you soon,
Laura