She enters the history of the French marathon. At only 25 years old, Méline Rollin has just broken the French distance record by achieving an exceptional time of 2h24′12′’. For only her third race over the distance, she beats by 10 seconds Christelle Daunay’s mark which had stood for almost 14 years, and at the same time, almost validates her place in Paris next summer. The results of a perfectly linear climb.
The Ardennese started athletics at the age of 9, following in the footsteps of her father, French masters track champion. “At the beginning, it was clearly dilettante to have fun with friends but it’s true that in my family, when I started, my father ran, my brother also did athletics rather than long jump. In short, I have always been immersed in it,” she explains to our colleagues at Running Attitude.
A computer engineer on the track
But from her first years on the track, the native of Villers-Semeuse (Ardennes) declared a weakness for long distances. “Méline has a profile of being more and more efficient, the more the distance increases. It’s one of his characteristics,” explains Azis Zidane, his trainer for almost 10 years, for Stadium News. Vice-champion of France in juniors over 3,000 m, she flourishes as the race lasts, to the point of already dreaming of 10 km, or even more.
But the Frenchwoman prioritized her studies at the time. The one her teachers imagined in preparatory class is finally top of her class in maths degree in Lille, while she continues to perform on the slopes… Before starting to dream of the Olympic Games, alone in her corner. In 2020, Méline Rollin wants to compete in her first very long distances. Starting with the half marathon. But a small injury before Covid-19 interrupted his progress.
???????? FRANCE marathon record for Méline Rollin (????????) in 2️⃣H2️⃣4️⃣’1️⃣2️⃣ at the Seville marathon just now! ????♂️ It’s an average of 3:25/km and she explodes her record by + 2 minutes ???????? MONSTROUS!
Heading to the Paris Olympic Games for now ✊ pic.twitter.com/ybtKGd1ZvH
— RUN’IX (@RUN_IX) February 18, 2024
It’s finally only a postponement. Hired as a computer engineer at Decathlon, she ran her first half-marathon at the start of 2022. In Paris, where just two years later, she was preparing to run the marathon at the Olympic Games. With almost every outing, the 25-year-old Frenchwoman breaks her own records. 8th in the half-marathon of the Mediterranean Games still in 2022, Méline Rollin still has something under her belt and is lining up for her first marathon in December 2022 in Valence.
“Natural mental strength”
Result: a time of 2h30′27′’, the best of the year for a French marathon runner, the 10th best French time of all time for women. In 2023, the Team Decathlon athlete for the Games continues his linear ascent by getting closer to the minimums – 2h26′55′’ just 5 seconds – in the fall, near Amsterdam, in Dantean conditions. “She has mental strength. It’s natural for her. We never felt the need to be supported,” confides his coach Azis Zidane.
For her third marathon in Seville, the member of the Givet Revin Athletic Club had seen the big picture with a long preparation in Portugal, and was even talking about going for this French record. “I don’t set limits for myself. If I progress with each marathon, why not go for this French record,” she explained last October.
This Sunday morning, she finally realized, almost logically, what she was waiting for. Obtain the mark of Christelle Daunay, former European distance champion. All this, it must be emphasized, in perfect conditions and with new generation shoes. But no matter, the place at the Games is now almost assured, unless another runner beats her record by the end of April. “It would be the icing on the cake to be at the Games and in Paris, with my whole family to support me! I want to be there of course because it won’t happen again before the end of my sporting career these Olympics at home,” she summarizes. Otherwise, we will have to wait for Los Angeles in 2028. The marathon runner will not even be 30 years old yet.
