French offering for Men’s Crew of the Year

Getting to the top is incredibly difficult, but staying there is even harder. World Rowing’s 2022 Men’s Crew of the Year did it in a remarkable way.

Matthieu Androdias and Hugo Boucheron of France became Olympic Champions when they won the Men’s Double Sculls in Tokyo in 2021. The rowing road to this pinnacle of their career was far from smooth. It did, however, set off with a bang. The duo debuted in the double together internationally in 2015 at the Bled International Regatta. They won. After qualifying the double for the Olympic Games in that same year they raced to sixth in the Rio Olympic final.

The following year Androdias and Boucheron remained racing together and, like Rio, they finished sixth at the 2017 World Rowing Championships. For 2018 it all came together for the duo and they won the European and World Championships. They didn’t, however, remain at the top. Androdias and Boucheron were unable to make the A-Final at the 2019 World Rowing Championships. Boucheron had toxoplasmosis and although still racing in the B-Final, Androdias had to pull both of them down the course. The power of Androdias enabled them to finish ninth and qualify for the Tokyo Olympics.

Then 2020 began and with it all of the complications of the Covid-19 Pandemic.

For periods of the year they had to remain apart and in lockdown and both caught Covid at different times. Boucheron describes doing more than six hours a day on the indoor rowing machine while confined to his 60m2 apartment in Lyon. They had one chance to race that year, but a positive covid test for Boucheron ruled them out of competing.

For the delayed Tokyo Olympics, again, it all came together. Androdias and Boucheron became French heroes.

After the race Boucheron commented; “This year was very special, with an extra layer of complexity and stress due to Covid. We had to adapt and do our best to stay away from the virus.”

The rollercoaster ride did not end there. After the high of winning Olympic gold, Boucheron openly discussed on social media his fall into depression. This saw the duo race the first part of the 2022 season in singles. Androdias had some success finishing with silver at World Rowing Cup II and then sixth at World Rowing Cup III.

Back in the boat together for the first time since the Tokyo Olympic final at the 2022 World Rowing Championships, Boucheron and Androdias pulled off the big one. For the second time they were World Champions.

For the boy from Lyon who started rowing when he was nine, Boucheron had become an Olympic Champion and twice World Champion. For Androdias, who took up rowing at the age of 15 to try and resolve some back issues, he was now a three-time Olympian, an Olympic Champion and two-time World Champion.

“In 2022 it was a very special season for us because the post-Olympic period was more complicated than we thought it would be,” says Androdias. “We had a lot of fantanstic moments of joy that we shared with our family and friends. And that was unforgetable. Then we had a period of weeks where we both experienced the dark side of the (Olympic) medal.”

“You get this medal in your hand and it changes almost everything. It takes time to deal with. So that’s why we first raced in the single (in 2022) to build another project, another challenge to go back to work with fresh air. After this experience we decided to go back into the double, almost one year after the Olympic final.”

For Boucheron the best part of 2022 was when training became fun again.

“Our coaches, Juergen Grobler and Alexis Besancon and the federation,” says Boucheron, “gave us time to come back. I came back to normal training in June we slowly built back our rhythm.”

And as the duo set their sights on Paris 2024, the last word goes to Boucheron, “When physical suffering and mental strength feed on an atmosphere, an aesthetic, then sport becomes pure pleasure. And performance, a beautiful and legitimate reward.”