JULIEN BILLAUT

“A good warm-up should trigger a chain of physical changes that ease the body into optimal emotional, cognitive and physical states to thrive for performance”

“Everything is freaking possible! Everyday day you have got the chance to change and you can be whoever you want to be. It’s a matter of choice” Fabien Lefèvre

Fabien Lefèvre is a French paddler that has raced for France from 2000 to 2012 and for the USA from from 2013. He is double Olympic medallist (Athens and Beijing)in Kayak, 3 times World Champion in individual event including 2 titles K1, 1 in C1 and on top of that to Silver medal in C2; those results make him the most successful paddler across all classes in canoe slalom. And 4 Gold in the Teams Events in K1 and C2. An an overall World Cup Win in K1.

Fabien is well known for is blistering ascension to the top of the Canoe Slalom World with a first K1 World Champion title at 20 years of age and his unique successful career in 3 classes in the sport and the innovation he’s brought into canoe slalom paddling.

Fabien has always been a polarising person; I really urge you to listen to what he has to say with an open mind because Fabien discussed the many incredible subjects with depth. With decades of experience, he doesn’t speak directly about technique and skills development but rather about what underlines those and how to trigger the best learning.

In this very inspiring talk, Fabien discusses his growth thanks to the sport with the help of his ego first and then how his encounter with God helped him to shed his skin and move forward. Now growth of the soul and spirituality are is main goals in life.

His approach to performance his truly holistic as he speaks about being align with your values, deep motivations, belief system and how you have to behave according to those everyday in training and racing.

He discusses the Men’s Kayak training group in the early years with Benoit Peschier (2004 Olympic Champion) and myself and Sylvain Curinier as a coach. The quality of the communication was critical rule for us.

We speak about the challenges of K1, C2, C1, the skills he developed in each class, the evolution of boat design and innovation, the difference between the French system and the American System and why he chose to compete for the US.

Listen until the end because at the end, Fabien tells us the many meaning of his tattoo on his torso.

Bear with us, because there are many gold nuggets to athletes here on how to become more organic and aligned with who you are in your paddling career.

Enjoy this very deep and inspiring talk with Fabien Lefèvre.

If you have enjoyed listening to Fabien Lefevre, you may want to listen to the following:

Jean-Yves Cheutin one of his former coach on the French Team here or to Denis Gargaud Chanut (2016 Olympic Champion and former C2 teammate of Fabien) here

“I want to have more knowledge about Canoe Slalom, sport management to be able to make an impact in canoeing in Asia” Sherry CHEN

Sherry is a Canoe women athlete who won Silver at the Asian Games in 2018 and 2014.

She has an inspiring story starting in a swimming pool in Taiwan and now racing against the best in the World across the globe.
Sherry wants to learn as much as she can about canoe slalom to be able to give back to this beautiful Olympic sport.

After graduating in Sport management in Taiwan, Sherry is now training full time to prepare in the hope of a selection to the Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020. On her path to excellence, she has learnt a whole lot as an athlete, a coach , head coach, and a race organiser.

She is always thrilled to have the privilege to race in Europe on Olympic venues, be part of the ICF Talent Identification Program.

Sherry would like the Asian countries to collaborate better so they can mutualise their efforts and resources to develop the sport in the Asian region, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan, Japan and China. Human ressources are there but they need still lack the knowledge to be able to run events efficiently. As she puts it, an Asian Cup organised by the Asian Canoe Confederation would be an exciting prospect!

Please enjoy the discussion with Sherry

You may want to listen to the ICF Canoe Slalom and White Water developement Coordinator Pierrick Gosselin here:

“My job is to be a Swiss knife to deliver tailor made solutions in a variety of cultures […] because the traditional European methods don’t work everywhere around the World”. Pierrick Gosselin

In his position Pierrick has worked with many people across the globe to develop the sport of canoeing.

This talk is not about medals but about spreading the love of the sport and building a wider base of canoe slalom paddlers across the globe.
With incredible and down to earth stories, Pierrick explains what it’s like to be dropped in a country and start from scratch; as he puts it, you need people that are Swiss knives to deliver tailor made solutions according to the specificity of the culture and people you work with. From the bamboo gates to the throwline safety rice bag, Pierrick believes that we all need to keep our “kids in Disneyland” spirit to be able to see opportunities in everyday life and be able to work with constraints to spark creativity.
We discuss the do’s and dont’s to build successful national development programs in those countries.

We also speak about the Talent Identification Program (TIP) and its evolution since 2010. He shares with us, the values of the program “Respect, Share and Be on time” and the challenges encountered along the road to uphold those values in a group of 16 athletes from 16 countries with various walks of life.

Because Pierrick believes it is all about giving back, the program has put in place a powerful “Return the Favour” program where TIP athletes are encouraged to help the canoeing community in their own ways.

Pierrick believes it is all about empowering people by giving an opportunity to shine. His refreshing talk, full of extraordinary stories is critical to remember that canoeing is shared my millions of people across the globe and that the bas of the pyramid is critically important.

Pierrick urges us to remind ourselves how lucky we are to do what we do and that we should all be grateful and happy for being part of that beautiful sport!

So please put your biggest smile on your face and listen to Pierrick Gosselin!

Julien Billaut

“I set up the environment to learn, we present the athletes a lot of tools and they have to choose which tools they want to use[…] I am a tool”. Guillermo DIEZ CANEDO

Guillermo is Diez Canedo is Canoe Slalom the Head Coach at the Spanish Canoe Federation.
Guille raced for Spain at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

Guille is still a young coach but has stacked up quite a lot of experience in the sport working in various countries such as Spain, Italy and Brazil.
During those years, he’s kept learning his craft; Guille loves coaching and he’s been able, in a unique Head Coach position in Spain, to create his dreamt performance system based on decision making on and off water.

That discussion is a great insight in a true Head Coach position and how to create a performing team of staff and athletes; building a daily training environment where athletes are forced to make decision and learn by themselves; because for Guillermo, Canoe Slalom is not about technique but rather about decision making in an instant.

You may want to listen to Jean-Yves, the Head Coach at the Russian Federation