Home>"I need to keep training"

04.07.2016

"I need to keep training"

Brice Leverdez, 30, is both a professional badminton player and a student in the Top Athletes programme at Sciences Po. He has already won eight French championship titles and twelve international tournaments and is currently in intensive preparation for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. We caught up with him between two training sessions.

When did you start playing badminton?

I started when I was 12. Before that I had done seven years of judo. My father was a coach at a club and I tied my first white belt at the age of five. I was pretty good... but I couldn't stand losing [laughs]. I injured my collarbone in training, that's why I decided to change sports. My sister had signed up to a badminton club in September but she stopped during the year, so I took over her membership and started badminton. I quickly became the best in my club. At 14, I joined the Châtenay-Malabry CREPS [regional centre], then when I turned 18 I was selected for INSEP [the national centre] after winning a bronze medal in men's doubles at the European Championships.

Why did you choose to enrol in the programme for Top Athletes offered by Sciences Po?

It was Sciences Po's reputation that attracted me. I had stopped studying a few years earlier and I wanted to go back to a programme that really motivated me. I felt sure this programme could teach me something and I have not been disappointed! I could have started a programme at INSEP or another school with flexible schedules, but I was convinced that Sciences Po was the best option for me. My professors manage to be both very smart and very down-to-earth with their students. I had never experienced that kind of teacher-student relationship before.

How do you manage to reconcile training and study?

At the moment it's not easy because training takes a lot of my energy and I recently started my own clothing business. www.leverdez.com. But I was able to arrange with my professors at Sciences Po to reduce the frequency of my classes so I can launch my brand while continuing my daily training sessions.

Have you noticed any similarities between preparing for university exams and preparing for sports competition? Are there any links between the two activities or are they paths you pursue in parallel?

It's the same for everything really: whether you want to pass an exam or win a sports competition you have to train, and the more you train the better you succeed! You also have to respond well under pressure. At Sciences Po you find yourself facing questions on a page, you have to be able to answer using the plan you've learned without going too far off subject. In sport it's the same thing: you have a tactical plan for a match and you try to stick to it. But if the chosen technique doesn't work against your opponent, you need to know how to find another tactic without losing sight of your goal.

You have just got back from two sports trips to Indonesia and Australia. How did your tournaments go? Do you feel ready for the Olympics?

Right now I am not ready for the Olympics. I still need the month and a half I have left for intensive training. In my recent tournaments there were things that went well and others less so. In the first, I was on my game but I lost to a better opponent. In the second tournament however I bungled the match. Now I need to understand why so I don't make the same mistakes again.

Do you have a little pre-match ritual or lucky socks for tournament day?

No I don't have lucky socks [laughs]. But I do always have a little teddy bear in my badminton bag when I play. It makes me think of my family, it was my father who gave it to me.

What are your long-term plans for after your sports career?

What I would like is to develop a project that works. If my clothing line takes off, it will be great.

In the more immediate future, I hope to continue my studies at Sciences Po so I can develop my skills and learn more about the professional world. I think it is a very good mix to have launched my own brand in parallel to my classes at Sciences Po because the two interrelate.

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