le PECHOUX Erwann

General
OLYMPIC INJURY SCARE
He initially feared that the tendon injury he sustained to his left wrist in late 2018 might signal the end his career. "Doctors spoke about surgery on my left wrist, with six months out of action. Because of my age, such a big operation just two years before the [2020] Olympics would have meant the end of my career. What happened was the attachment of a tendon was slipping and moving, causing inflammation. But with the medical staff we took a gamble on physiotherapy instead of surgery. One hour of rehabilitation each day, every day. The result is that now [January 2019] I feel almost no pain, it's getting less and less every day. The tendon is moving around less and with tape we can secure and maintain it and I can fence normally." (FFE YouTube channel, 13 Jan 2019; lequipe.fr, 12 Jan 2019)

OLYMPIC COUPLE
In 2014 he married Tunisian fencer Ines Boubakri, who is also an Olympic medallist. The pair met at a fencing competition. "She is very important to me, sometimes she can find the right words that coaches cannot. It is important that she talks to me. She helps me on tactics but mainly she gives me psychological support. For me personally, when she won an Olympic medal [bronze at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro], it was the most beautiful moment I have ever experienced in sport." (FIE YouTube channel, 13 Mar 2017; olympicchannel.com, 2017; rfi.fr, 13 Aug 2016)

OTHER ROLES
He is member of the high performance athletes' commission at the French Fencing Federation. (Federation Francaise d'Escrime, 17 Dec 2020)