“I had to fight and justify myself twice as much because I was a woman”

One, for lack of an existing offer, created its own club and fought to have suitable equipment, especially for female practitioners; the other took in hand the destinies of a sports association to avoid its closure. Whether in rollerblading or in rugby, Précilia Verdier and Pauline Choquet-Coder had to face entrenched stereotypes and come to terms with a machismo that sometimes gave them “wanting to give up”as recognized by the first.

At a time when France prides itself on organizing strictly equal Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2024, these two women, each in their own way, embody the fact that “women’s sport is first and foremost the story of a conquest”that “equality between men and women within practices” like that of ” role “ and of “the place of women in the world of sport”as cartographer Stéphane Coursière and professor emeritus of urban geography and spatial planning Jean-Paul Volle wrote in 2019 in an article published in the journal Hérault studies​.

“When women have a dream, they must commit themselves fully, despite doubts and pitfalls. » This sentence, Précilia Verdier does not throw it in the air. At 38, the ex-world amateur skating champion (in 2008) knows what she’s talking about. She started skating alone, at the age of 18, on the asphalt of a car park in the Fourche-Vieille district, in Orange (Vaucluse), her hometown, before joining the University of Montpellier to pursue higher education in sport. Where she stumbled on a reality. “In Montpellier, there was nothing, no club. But I needed it to stay motivated.she explains.

To fill this gap, she founded her own school in 2011, the Roll’s School. With success, since the number of members soared, to reach 190 people, before plummeting to around fifty followers in 2016. In question: the dilapidation of the Grammont skatepark, built in 1992, on which the school provided lessons and courses for girls and boys. “It was a hassle, and even dangerousshe recalls. The girls had to pee in a bottle because they couldn’t isolate themselves. »

“I am a graduate, I am a champion and I have experience”

To remedy this, she led “the fight of [sa] vie », activist for the construction of equipment adapted to the practice of skiing for all, and in complete safety. She put together a file, created a collective to carry out this request, and won her case in July 2018: the project for a multi-slide park of 9,000 m², with a budget of nearly 6 million euros, equipped with toilets, locker rooms and offices, was voted by the city council.

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