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So today I'm gonna talk about my sport : track and field (and especially pole vault) !
Why did I choose to practice pole vault you may ask me. Well it's quit simple, in 2016 it was the Olympic Year and the sportlover that I am watched the entire Olympics. And by looking the track and field I was impressed by the performance of Kevin Mayer (french athlete specialized on combined events), I was like "okay this is what I wanna do". So here we go, I signed into the local club (Grand Angoulême Athlétisme) 4 years ago and start my training for combined events. Because per haps you ignore it but combined events is the most difficult event of track and field, 4 races, 3 throws and 3 jumps all this in two days ! Crazy right ? But never mind I wanted to train for it so this is what I did for 3 years.

Now how the hell did I get to pole vault ?
Well to pratice combined events I must do some pole vault so the question is quickly answered I guess XD. No seriously it's just that my coach (for combined events) went to another city so he wasn't really able to coach my sparring partner and I. Add to this that the hurdles were one meter high and you've got all required to make me move from combined events to pole vault.

So now few things that makes me love pole vault. Strange but the most exciting thing is when you start your jump, the exact moment when the pole hit the bumper and you leave the ground. Everything around seems to stop and your only matter is your technique. And of course the best part is when you're falling after crossing the bar, it's impossible for me to describe precisely the feeling you've got at this exact moment. Also what I love, is that to do a good jump you have to leave on the track all the things in your mind that can disturb you, rather your feelings or doubts and even your brain 'cause if you think too much you'll have doubts before jumping and then it's game over. Moreover pole vault have quit a philosophic sense I think, for me it teach you to be humble as a pole vault competition always ends with failure ; in the end the bar always ends up falling.

Well I think I'm almost done for this week's APP so let's finish by talking about pole vault athletes. If you don't know a thing about pole vault (then I hope you may have learned by reading me) I would only talk about the last three world record holder : Sergueï Bubka, Renaud Lavillenie and Armand Duplantis, these three are members of the private club of above 6 meters men (only 25 athletes in this club). Why these three guys ? Because they're the higher - 6m15 for Bubka, 6m16 for Lavillenie and 6m18 for Duplantis - and because they've jumped 6 meters or above more times than the other athletes (46 times for Bubka, 20 times for Lavillenie and 11 times for Duplantis).
But as incredible as Bubka or Lavillenie can be, Duplantis remains the most incredible pole vaulter I've seen. This guy has an amazing potential and he is only 20 years old !! Do you imagine ? He could be one of your student !

I love Athletics and used to Run, Hurdle and Long Jump for my school but I'd never have the courage to do the Pole Vault.

Hello John ! Here's my second APP work (late... again). Do you like cycling ? Because that's today's subject so here we go !!

So I'm gonna talk about the World Championships that happened two weeks ago and the amazing victory of Julian Alaphilippe and the perfect race of the french team.
First thing you have to know is that these championships were not annouced as a good chances for the french teamto take the win ‘cause many of our leaders weren’t in a good shape since the Tour de France (Romain Bardet was injured, Thibaut Pinot was out too). The only leader remaining was Julian Alaphilippe and the rest of the team was composed by « normal guys » if we can say so, they were neither excellent or bad. Anyway, all these facts made the french team came to these World Championships as perfect outsiders. And if we think a bit to it, that was the perfect conditions, nobody pay attention to the french team during the race (probably focused on real danger for the title like Roglic, Pogacar or Van Aert).

So why did the french team made the perfect race ? It’s simple, in the first part they just run with the pack, they let other teams bring back the leaders of the race when some courageous guys try to take the advantage. This way they kept a chance for the final win and they don’t waste their forces. And in the second part of the race they took the lead of the race imposing the pace and controling every moove, to let Julian Alaphilippe finish the work in the last twenty kilometers.

Now what’s impressive in Julian Alaphilippe’s performance is that from the moment he took advantage on the others suitors for the Iridescent jersey to the moment in cross the finish line, no one of his pursuers was able to take back a single second. It’s just like Wout Van Aert said after the race « The strongest has won ».

To finish, I think that this victory has a sense of achievement for Julian Alaphilippe. Indeed if we look his career he won some great classic races (like Milan-San Remo, Flèche Wallone…) and last year he loose the yellow jersey on the Tour de France in the very last days, but was never crowned the best of the best. And this made his victory more beautiful.

I like to watch the TdF but I'm not into cycling anymore. As a boy I used to cycle miles to get to places but never for sport.

I'm not really fond of cycling but I do like to cycle on the mountains with my father and do some of the great climbs like Alpe d'Huez or Col de Portet that I've mad this summer.

Hello so today I wanna talk about the trip I had the chance to make in Iceland five or six years ago. So if my memory is good I went in Iceland (in summer, too cold in winter) with my family for two weeks I guess and we almost made the full tour of Iceland. We landed at the airport of Keflavik (near Reykjavik the capital) at midday so we had some time to visit the city and we sleeped only one night in Reykjavik because we had every steps of the trip already organized. So we had a full circuit along the cost (from the capital (south-west) to the south-east side before going north-east then almost full nort-west and finally get back to the starting point by crossing the island by it center.
So now the major thing to remember from Iceland is it's unusual landscapes. First landscape we saw in our trip was the flaw of Thingvellir, a massive scar on the land extended on kilometers partly due to volcanic activity which is incredible in Iceland. Also I could talk for hours about waterfalls of Iceland, from the biggest one to the small that are along the cost, all of them make you realize how small and insignificant you are. Some of the most famous waterfalls in Iceland got a bigger debit than the Niagara falls (and by the way I found them quit more attractive).
I was talking about volcanic activity on the island and I definitely think that a big part of the beautiful landscapes is a consequence of it. Hot springs, green or red mountains, waterfalls... It was all created by the volcanos. And to me the fact that Iceland is a particulary cold volcano land made the thing even more beautiful. It's a real fight between fire and ice, in five kilometers you can see amazing icebergs or glaciers and then be in front of dry lava lake.
But anyway let's go back to our subject ! One more thing about Iceland's landscapes, the middle of the island. That is a place I would remember for a long, long time. In one word : lunar. Honestly it's really particular to describe my feelings when I was there, because on the first side I was impressed by the beauty of this desert and on the other side there were really nothing and you know when you're there that you can straight either north, south, east or west there will be nobody living before miles.
So there we are, I think I'll do an another part because I still have things to stay about this strip and I don't want to do one big post (also because I need time to remember everything).

very interesting thanks

Okayyy here we are, get ready for the second part of my adventures in Iceland aaannd let's go !
So I've already talked about landscapes and today I'll talk about things, fun facts... however you wanna call them about my trip.
So the first anecdote come on the fisrt day when I left my room at the hotel to go and visit the city when I saw other people leaving their rooms with the door almost fully open. And yes as strang as it seems, in Iceland peoples leave their doors open when they quit their room (at least in hotels) because there is a global feeling of security and mutual trust between citizens. Of course it's surprising and I shall admit that the first days I still closed my door but after seeing everybody doing the opposite I changed my mind and leave my room open like everyone.
Now few things I wanna share about animals. So Iceland is one of the purest land of the Earth and because of that there is a really impressive biodiversity. But one particular thing in Iceland is sheeps. When I went to Iceland (in summer) they were everywhere, you cannot do one mile without seeing sheeps and ofently you'll see them by three and as Iceland is a wild country, animals (sheeps especially) don't really care of humans and cars they won't move from the road even you'll have to wait for them to go. Of course you will see many puffin, the iconic bird from Iceland. But they are mostly based on the North coast as it's part of the Arctic Circle. Also if you go to the North in the second biggest city of Iceland (named Akureyri) you will be able to join "expeditions" to go on the sea and watch whales, dolphins... which I had the chance to made but sadly as the weather were not really good we could only see one whale and some dolphins.
So one last thing to conclude this post and for me it's probably the greatest thing in Iceland, I'm talking of hot springs ! Due to volcanic activity Iceland is full of natural hot springs and the most famous of these is the Blue Lagoon near Reykjavik. It's a big cure complex with hot springs, sauna, hammam... you can go there for different cure or just to enjoy the heat of the bath. By the way you can also enjoy the beauty of the place 'cause the bath are indoor and outdoor so in winter you can come there and take a 40 degrees bath when it's less than 10 degrees.

I'd love to go there one day ( but probably never will).

Today I will talk about sportsmen that are legends in their disciplines, considered from common agreement as Greatest Of All Times (GOAT) or as people from an other world. By legends I mean sportsmen that have dominated or are dominating the game. Each time I’ll present you a sportsman in a few words then I’ll explain why he or she is a legend to me. By the way as I don’t know how long it will be there will probably have two posts on this topic.

So let’s get it started with track and field (because it’s my sport) and especially with the sprint legend Usain Bolt. So why do I consider him as legend : first he beats seven world records (three on 100m and two on 200m and 4x100m) and he keeps having world record on these three disciplines, he has been dominating the sprint for almost ten years. But also to me he is the kind of athlete that have understood everything, I mean he is a showman that always do the show in interviews and he always looks relaxed but at the moment he enter on the track he is totally focused and you can see the real competitor. So to me he will continue to dominate the sprint world for a while.
Of course I could have talked of  other track and field legends like Jesse Owens, Mike Powell, Carl Lewis or Sergueï Bubka but I want to talk about several sports in this topic so I’m forced to restrict my choice or it would take me days to write it.

Now let’s talk about football. I think you can guess who’s legends I’m going to talk about, it’s the most famous and impressive duel in history : Messi and Ronaldo. Of course I am not going to say which one is the best because everybody as his own opinion that cannot be changed and It won’t be interesting to debate on this. So a few words about Ronaldo, he is the only footballer with Messi to have won at least 5 Ballons d’or in his career, he has more goals than any other footballers, he has won 32 titles (in clubs and national team) and I could spend a night to name all the titles and personal distinctions he has claimed so to make it short : Ronaldo is the kind that’s always looking for records to reach and beat. About Messi now, it’s almost the same except that Messi have done is full professional career in the same club. He is the first and only player to win 6 Ballons d’or (4 in a row), he has won 35 titles for his club and his national team, he is the best goalscorer ever in a year (with 91 goals), the best goalscorer in an european championship in one season (50 goals in Liga in 2011-2012) and just like Ronaldo I could continue to give you his records. Now what is interesting to compare with these two is that both have the best statistics in football history but according to me the main difference is that Ronaldo is the perfect example of someone who has worked hard his whole life to come to his current level and it’s totally opposed to Messi who can be qualified as a genius, someone who is born with a talent for something and was destinated to shine. This is why I think I consider them as the greatest sportsmen of all time.
By the way a fun fact on Messi and Ronaldo is that even if both are incredible players they have never won the Graal of any footballer : the FIFA World Cup.

Do you like tennis ? I do. And a thing I love in particular is to see that the place for number one in history is hardly battled between (in my opinion) three players : Federer, Nadal and Djokovic. Hard to say which one is the best because their statistics are really close. Federer has won 103 titles including 20 titles in Grand Chelem (6 in the Australia Open, 1 in Roland-Garros, 8 in Wimbledon and 5 in the US Open), he won two olympic medals (silver in simple and gold in double) and he won Coupe Davis one time and he spent 310 weeks at the first place at the ATP ranking (237 (in a row). Nadal has also won 20 titles in Grand Chelem (86 titles in his whole career), he won 1 title in the Australia Open, 13 in Roland-Garros, 2 in Wimbledon and 4 in the US Open, he won the gold at the Olympic games in simple and in double and he won the Coupe Davis 5 times. Also he spent 209 weeks as the number one at the ATP ranking (56 in a row). Now about Djokovic, he has won 81 titles in aggregate (17 titles in Grand Chelem) with 8 titles in the Australia Open, 1 in Roland-Garros, 5 in Wimbledon and 3 in the US Open and he won the Coupe Davis one time. He only won bronze medal at the Olympics but he spent 301 weeks as the number one (122 in a row).
Part 1/2

Now let’s go for part 2 of my topic about sports legends !
And the first one of this post will be : Lewis Hamilton. This man embodies the human pushed to its perfection, he is the unbeatable king of the F1 world, he accumulates records (97 pole positions, 163 podiums, 94 victories and 7 world champions titles, 413 points in one season, 3738 points in his career…). He is really impressive because at this day there is anyway good competition in F1 but he doesn’t seem affected at all he keeps winning race after race, leaving only crumbs to his opponents. But also I qualified him of legend because he is an engaged man, defending black people right especially and he is an humble and respectful man.

As we are talking of motor sports, let’s talk about Sébastien Loeb the french rallye legend. To me he can easily be qualified as legend because he has been dominating rallye for 10 years with 9 world champions titles, 79 victories in WRC and 119 podiums. In Europe (ERC) he did 2 victories for 3 races. After he long career on WRC, he reconverted on circuit with success (5 poles positions and 25 podiums including 10 victories). That is why it was a pride as french to have such a talented man on the international scene and today we can only deplore that lack of successor (even if there was Sébastien Ogier right after Loeb’s retreat to offer 6 more WRC titles to France).

Now let’s change of sport and go talk about Teddy Riner. In my first post about sports legends, I was talking about people who dominates their discipline well I think Teddy Riner really embodies this expression. He is the most titled judoka ever 17 personal titles (2 Olympics, 10 Worlds and 5 Europeans. When I say he is dominating judo, in fact most peoples are talking of supremacy. Why ? Well because he didn’t loose any fight from 2010 to 9 February 2020 (an other shitty point of 2020   ) an incredible series of 154 victories in a row. Also he carries good values (probably due to his sport) and he is the kind of man enjoying every moment, in a team he is the one that always make jokes and set the mood.

So I think I’m gonna stop talking of legends here, as I have already said this is my personal choice of sports legend and of course they are not the only one, sport is probably the richest activity in terms of talented people.
I already have an idea for my next (and last if my counts are correct) to do a post related to this subject (sports legends).
Part 2/2

And time for the last of my APP posts. As I was saying at the end of my previous post, I choose a topic linked to sports legends so of course I'm gonna talk about rookies in different sports. A little disclaimer/reminder before we begin, the rookies I’ll talk about are a personal choice because there is to many promising rookies in each sports.

This time I’ll start with football because there is a many young talented players emerging and starting to shake up the hierarchy. Of course I’m french, I’m talking of football so my example will be Kylian Mbappé. So Mbappé, 21 years old, already world champion, main player of PSG and France teams. Yes we can say it’s quit a man already. He is considered as the best incoming footballer and he is already beating his elders. Bein Sports gave the statistic that he has more trophees and more goals than Messi or Ronaldo at the same age (20 or 21, I don’t remember clearly). But more than titles, goals or statistics it’s impressive to see his humility. I mean even if everybody says « he will be the best ever and has already started to be » he doesn’t get arrogant, he keeps saying that he still need to do his proofs (which his a really good thing).
But as I said earlier there is plenty of young talented boys emerging so every journalists are asking themselves « who will be the new Messi and Ronaldo with Mbappé » because Mbappé is a little more older than other rookies like Joao Félix (Portugal), Jadon Sancho (England), Erling Haaland (Norway)… And even if to me it’s not good at all to wonder about that because it can put pressure on these rookies and waste their talents, I think it’s interesting and natural as humans to wonder who will succeed. To explain, it’s been 15 years since we start to hear a lot about Messi and Ronaldo, every football fans have been following the duel through the years and now these two are approaching from the end of their careers so as humans we don’t want to see an end to this because we love story like this, it make us dream. That’s the major reason why we want to find « the new Messi and Ronaldo ».

Now a smaller part about track and field and especially on « Mondo » Duplantis. Why smaller ? Because I have already talked a little bit of him in my first post. So Duplantis is the actual pole vault world record holder (6m15 outdoor and 6m18 indoor), at just 21 years old he is already competiting with the best in the world. To me, he can be qualified as a record-seeker because since he claimed the wolrd record last winter, all he has been doing is raising the bar one centimeter up to previous record to beat it. Which is not a bad thing, this way at every competition he makes you are sure to have a great show. So I think he has a list of every pole vault records in history and he check it before every competition, to know what height I will ask.

There we are, it’s the end of my topic. I know, I know it’s quit sad but it was also a pleasure to share things of my mind with you. Let’s hope we could come back to a « normal situation » for the next semester !