Par Sébastien Aliome
Published on 3 Jan 24 at 6:53 See my news Follow Le Réveil de Neufchâtel
Alongside comedian Caroline Vigneaux and actor Stéphane Freiss, David Douillet was the guest of A Sunday in the Country broadcast on France 2 on Sunday December 31, 2023.
Its host, Frédédic Lopez, has the gift of making those who participate in his show talk. This was the case with the former judoka from the Pays de Bray. The one who was French champion several times, but also multiple world champion and twice Olympic champion spoke about his life without restraint.
A childhood with his grandparents
Without mentioning his origins geographically, which we know refers to the communes of Bellencombre and Neufchâtel-en-Bray (Seine-Maritime), David Douillet told his story, firstly that of a child raised by his grandparents. .
My father leaves when I am a few months old. I don’t know who it is anyway. My mother is a single mother. You see the reputation 50 years ago in a village of 600 inhabitants. It was the “Mary lie down there”, and I was a bit of the bastard of the story.
David Douillet
And to continue: “My grandparents then asked him to work. And she restarts her life without me. She comes to see me from time to time. It was good to see my mother, but difficult because she kept leaving. I never asked her why she never took me. That’s his problem, not mine. I dealt with it and found the solution. But I wasn’t unhappy even if I was a bit like the lame duck of the family, a little kid that people want to hide. Hence this feeling of wanting to exist. I grew up in that context.”
At the Neufchâtel-en-Bray judo club
From this childhood, the sportsman and former minister will draw great strength:
This situation has been a monstrous power and engine. If I didn’t have that, I wouldn’t have become what I am. And I had love with my grandmother, Love with a capital A.
David Douillet also looked back on his first steps on tatami. It was a foregone conclusion! “We had neighbors. Their grandchildren came during the holidays and they did judo in Paris. But there was no club in my village. When I was 11, the newspaper said that a judo club had just opened next door.”
His grandmother takes him to the club (the one in Neufchâtel-en-Bray, not to mention it). It’s love at first sight.
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I then discover a kindness that suits me. But at the beginning, I sucked, because I was light years away from the competitive spirit. What made me happy was the training. And in this club, I discover family warmth.
Frederic Lopez, David Douillet, Caroline Vigneaux, Stéphane Freiss in A Sunday in the Country. ©© Yumé production
“Judo is not a job”
Very quickly, David Douillet knew that he wanted it and that he could make a career in judo. However, not everyone was of this opinion. “In second grade, I started to get some results. I see the guidance counselor. The gentleman tells me that Sport Study is rubbish, it is doomed to failure, that judo is not a profession. And my grandmother said to him in her soft voice: my grandson, he will do what he wants. The same year, I became champion of France.”
David Douillet will climb mountains to become the champion that we will know a few years later and who will make him the master of the world on several occasions in his discipline.
In the show, he will offer an introduction to his art and will reveal himself as rarely. The whole thing can be found in Replay on the francet.tv website.
This is perhaps the soul of a Brayon champion, because as we often hear in our campaign: “There are the sayers and there are the doers”.
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2024-01-03 06:17:15
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