“I really feel like the champion who never dies, who endures what life presents…” After four years and nine months of suspension for having evaded an anti-doping test during an internship in Marrakech ( Mar), Clémence Calvin, 33, resumed her career last Sunday.
The European vice-champion in the marathon in 2018 competed in the 10 km of the Prom Classic in Nice (4th in 32′54). “I’m happy to get started,” she explains in a long interview with The Team. I never raised the subject of a sporting retirement (…) When the definitive suspension fell, I never asked myself the question of what would happen next. I am someone who lives in the moment. I was nourished by the love of my son, then we started on the project of the second child (with her husband Samir Dahmani, also suspended for four years for complicity in violating anti-doping rules). »
During her pregnancy, the resident of the Martigues club followed online training and worked as a psychomotor therapist in child psychiatry at the city’s day hospital with autistic children.
“It allowed me to look forward to other things, to put all that into perspective,” she continues. I was quickly valued by all my other skills (…) It gave me the opportunity to live a normal life. There are good and bad sides to every fact of life. I never asked myself the question of stopping. I was in real life and it was busy. There, I give myself the opportunity to resume at a high level. »
“I run above all for myself”
Since 2019, the native of Vichy has continued to run regularly to maintain her body but without considering herself an athlete. She navigates by sight and confesses that she will not persist if she does not obtain results. And approaches the possibility of the Paris Olympics with a certain philosophy, even fatalism.
“The Games are not a dream, it’s a goal,” she says. If I meet the criteria and I’m needed, I’ll be there. But I’m not going to fight against an iron pot, I gave for that. I run above all for myself. I leave myself the possibility of coming back. »
She has until April 30 to try to achieve the Olympic marathon minimums (2h26′50). Four French women already meet the qualification criteria but the French team will only be able to field three at the Games.
Calvin knows that his return may raise some teeth or attract criticism. “I’m not trying to prove something to anyone. That’s why I’m detached because I don’t feed on people’s hatred, nor on the pleasure I can get from running, she answers. I’m taking it back because if I don’t do it now, I won’t do it when I’m 40. I’m giving myself the chance to get there. »
