The eldest of five siblings, he spent his early childhood between Burgundy and Mayotte. It is finally in Dole that the Thebault family will put down their suitcases, and on our dear Doubs, François gives his first rowing stroke. “I Discovered Rowing At The End of 6”^And in PE class, and I took my first license the next school year. And the love story begins. He studied at the rowing club Dolois until the age of eighteen, before being selected for the regional team for the Coupe de France and for the French championship in two junior pairs. After receiving his bachelor’s degree, he left for Annecy and its Cercle Nautique for two years. Due to which he qualified again for the 2019 French Championship.

going to scotland

September 2020, young Dolois orients his compass to the north and heads for Scotland and the University of Edinburgh, one of the twenty best in the world. “My ambition was to come here, I wanted this degree (history, architecture and heritage). It is not a sport choice but rowing is a prestigious discipline in the UK. Being in the sports field of the university, I was very interested. ,

“I moved on here”

Now in his third season at the Edinburgh University Boat Club, the Jura player can finally experience the joys of a full competition calendar. “These are marathon seasons. It is not enough just to be the strongest in September, you have to stay till the end. The health crisis has given rise to the seasons. There was no competition in 2020 and 2021 was shortened. They won the Scottish Championship in the single sculls (individual), despite the schedule being limited to the summer period.

“I’ve made progress here, maybe not as much as I wanted to. Mentally it’s not easy, especially in winter. We have a lot of training and it’s hard to see friends go out when we have to go to bed at 9:30 p.m. in order to recover well,” he admitted. There are ten to twelve training sessions a week, each of at least one and a half hours.

Direction to the Rowing Temple

On 26 March 2022, he crosses the Queen’s Kingdom to reach the center of London, and participates in the Head of the River Race (HORR). “This stretch of the Thames is just legendary, it is a real sense of accomplishment, it is an honor to be here!”, assures Jura.

However, this Saturday 26 March, a 7 kilometer river plug has been announced between Chiswick and Putney in south-west London. In question, 295 teams of eight athletes from all four corners of the island. Some rowers, at the university or international level, were at the Tokyo Games a few months ago. In the third Scottish boat, made up of eight rowers and a helmsman, where François is in, the crew is aiming for the top 100. Objective 91 achieved with^And Social class. Twelfth for the University’s first boat and a podium in the University Rankings (Third). a record! Next step, Nottingham for the University Championships, in mid-April.