Like the hammer she sends so far, everything turns quickly in the life of Rose Loga. A little over a month ago, the young 21-year-old athlete was having a nightmare during the U23 European Championships in Espoo, Finland. Unable to perform a throw of more than 62.36 meters, light years from her personal best set at 71.09m, she took the door to qualifying, without going through the final square. A real slap, as she admits with lucidity and honesty: “I completely missed it. This made me doubt a lot, so much so that for a few days I was even afraid to throw. Fortunately, I was able to regain a little confidence during the French Championships, even if I was hoping to do better. It showed me that I could do better.”
A hexagonal competition where she won third place, behind in particular a certain Alexandra Tavernier, record holder of France and world bronze medalist in Beijing in 2015. A model to follow or a competitor? “I take Alex’s presence as a positive aspect,” she says. “Already, I am not someone who is into excessive competition. I consider myself to be above all in competition with myself. What I do is up to me. And then it’s good to be several in a discipline, especially since we get along very well. I appreciate him very much and wish him the best. In a career, progression is never linear. When you’re down there, it’s quite complicated and you have to be well surrounded. I had this chance when it happened to me, especially with Alex ‘who also had difficult times and who gave me valuable advice.
Today, Rose Loga is about to experience her first World Championships among seniors. With a realistic goal in mind: “This competition must bring me experience, because it is the closest to the Olympics in terms of level. The result, even if it will be important, is not the key word. I know for example that a podium is totally out of reach, which takes the pressure off me. And to reach the final, I will have to beat my record. So what I want is to continue to build myself in contact with the best. I want these Worlds to serve me for later. Obviously with the next Olympic Games in Paris in 2024 in mind, in which she dreams of taking part. There are two ways to do this: do the minimum fixed at 74 meters, or obtain your place thanks to the world ranking.
In either case, she will have to progress at breakneck speed. “Areas of progress, there are everywhere, including in my lifestyle, my diet…”, she admits. “In terms of technique, I work every day because even the best in the world can sometimes be improved in this area. And for my part, even if I know that I haven’t beaten my record for a while, it doesn’t mean that I haven’t progressed. Performance is just waiting to come out.” At 21, it is not surprising that her margin of progress remains significant for her who arrived in the hammer throw late. As in athletics, moreover, with which she first maintained a sinusoidal relationship. “I came to this sport several times,” she recalls. “I started at the age of 9 because one of my educators at school saw that I was the fastest runner. Except that I stopped very quickly because at that time, for me, athletics was all about doing laps and I hated that. But this educator did not let go and he came back to my mother one day when he met her in the streets of Chartres (where she grew up). So I went back when I was 12 and this time it went better and I never stopped again.”
As for the hammer, the Paris native admits not having had an immediate crush. “At the beginning, what attracted me was that I was efficient because the hammer, I did not know at all. I did it because it brought me a lot of points when I was young and had to do triathlon. It was there that I was the strongest almost without doing anything. But basic, what I liked are the jumps, in particular the triple jump. That was what drew me to athletics. Before detailing: “The hammer is linked to a lot of stereotypes that scared me. Often, the women who practice it are quite physically strong and I didn’t really want to look like them or be forced to bulk up. I just wanted to be me. I didn’t want to see my body change. But the approach of my trainer (Baptiste Lacourt) is not basic in throwing, and that’s what I liked and made me stay. Doing bodybuilding terrified me, for example. But he doesn’t consider that you have to be strong to be strong. It works more on balancing the forces that I naturally have. Bodybuilding, I do it because it’s necessary but not in excess. That’s how I liked the hammer.”
That’s how she got caught up in the game, before, as she aspires to, getting caught up in the Olympic Games… in Paris. “Before being at the pole in Eaubonne (which she joined at 15), I was not very rigorous in training. But as soon as I got there, it stuck with me and everything changed. I started having fun, understanding what I was doing and why I was doing it. Today, I will not say that it is a passion but I like it, and I want to do it again for a long time. And without worrying about its morphology. “My body will be fine the way it is. I don’t want my body to change to fit into the codes of a discipline. If I gain 20 kilos like that, naturally, without looking for it, then I will gain 20 kilos and I will accept it. As long as I don’t gain weight out of necessity. Basically, I’m a rather slender person. And I don’t have to gain a lot of weight to be stronger, I can do it too by strengthening my muscles.