BERDER Cecilia

General
RIO REGRET
In 2020 she said the biggest disappointment of her career was failing to win a medal at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. "The biggest blow was in Rio, where I managed to put on good performances in the individual and team events, but where, every time, we did not secure a medal. In team, we lost in the quarterfinals against Italy - the match went by very quickly, and after twenty minutes, everything we dreamed of was over. It was a big frustration not to be able to perform in that moment, to feel that you weren't in control during the fight. It was a trauma, it left a mark on us." (ablock.fr, 11 Dec 2020)

MEDITATION
She has practised meditation since 2015, and credits it with helping to improve the consistency of her results. "In 2015, I had just turned 25. I loved my sport and my results were good, but very inconsistent. I could make it to the final one weekend and lose miserably in the first round the following week. It was very hard to take, my morale was on a roller coaster ride. I felt that I had to find an inner calm. I'm pretty hyperactive, I wanted to be in the fight all the time. Sitting on a chair, doing nothing, seemed impossible to me. But I wanted to grow up, and not just for fencing. I wanted to be able to do things at my own pace, maybe slower, maybe faster, but at least be in control of my time and my emotions. I knew it wasn't by holding a sword that I would get there. It had to happen inside. It was at this time that my mental trainer made me aware of meditation. By focusing on my breathing and consciously performing an action as mundane and harmless as getting air into my body, I felt like I was taking the reins back." (lemonde.fr, 07 Jul 2019)

EARLY DAYS
When she first started fencing at age seven, she was the only girl in her club. "For me, it wasn't weird to be the only girl - I didn't even think about it. I had one arm, two legs, a mask and a sword like them. It is true that the boys looked at me, made fun of me a little. I did not understand why. In fact, it's because I was the only girl. Today, I compete in a team, a female team, but I never thought in terms of the boy/girl differences, maybe because I grew up with two brothers. Today, compared to twenty years ago, there are as many women as men in fencing. It is a mixed sport, we train mixed in clubs. Men can move faster, their speed of execution is different to women. This is also why I love crossing swords with them because they give us their own speed, tactics and technique." (ablock.fr, 11 Dec 2020)

OCCUPATION
She works as a journalist for Franceinfo, a television, radio and online news service in France. In 2019 she worked on a series of features about French athletes hoping to compete at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. "As fencers we are more or less forced to have a job because it's not really a professional sport, even though we train like professionals. I specialise in journalism, in radio, because I like telling stories. In my role each week I talk about sport, with a focus on Olympic athletes. I work about 15 hours per week and I'm lucky because I can do it on a train, a plane, in between training sessions or sitting on my hotel bed. All I need is paper and a pen to work." (lesportaufeminin.fr, 18 Mar 2020; Twitter profile, 14 Apr 2021; francetvinfo.fr, 05 May 2019; FranceTV YouTube channel, 26 Mar 2019; Instagram profile, 28 Jan 2019)

FAMILY
Her parents Eric and Patricia run a restaurant and bar in Quimper, France. The bar is called 'The Sabre' in honour of their daughter. (ouest-france.fr, 24 May 2019)