For them, the Olympic Games have a special feeling.
Lisa Barbelin and Thomas Chirault are a couple and competing at Paris 2024. They could enter the closed circle of couples in the Olympic medal life – like the French fencers Manon Apithy-Brunet and Boladé Apithy.
Thomas, Olympic men’s team runner up with Jean-Charles Valladont and Baptiste Addis, already has a medal around his neck. A success to which he inevitably associates with Lisa, with whom he has been with for four years.
The two archers met around the INSEP shooting ranges, the National Sports Institute of Excellence and Performance, with Lisa entering the French team two years after Thomas.
“A few years in, we started to meet a little more so to speak,” says Chirault. “And since then, it’s been a great adventure that we’ve shared together.”
“We are living magical moments together and we are very happy to be able to make these Olympic Games. Here, in Paris, at home, both of us, it’s really something incredible.”
Barbelin, 24 years old, and Chirault, 26 years old, have a special story: being in a couple and training together as high level athletes. Moreover, for more than a year, they have both been in a French team that has prepared for a home Olympic Games.
A situation not always so easy, but the two believe they have managed it very well.
