France national Cassandre Beaugrand, who studies and trains at the University, will compete in the Triathlon in her home country – having picked up a bronze medal at Tokyo 2020.
With temperatures set to soar in Paris, Cassandre has been taking part in the heat acclimation training in the University’s physiology lab, in the environmental chamber.
Speaking before heading back to France, Cassandre said she’s looking forward to taking part: “I think I started to be a bit nervous, but I've never been this ready before. I'm in the best shape of my life and I’ve improved so much being here at Loughborough to the point where I think I'm ready now.
“Loughborough has been a good experience for me to get out of my comfort zone and improve my English. I have everything I could imagine for here and it couldn’t be better for my performance.
“I don’t really fancy the lab and it’s my worst, favourite place. However, I know it’s important so I’ve done some testing before earlier in the season to see where I was and I can now compare that to where I am now. I’m not sure how hot I’ll be in Paris as my race is due to start early in the morning, but you never know.
“The training is hard, but I enjoy preparing here because it allows me to train away from the pressure and expectations of being a French triathlete. The aim is to win a medal of course and I believe I’m capable, but I know I’ll need to perform on the day.”
Performance physiologist for Loughborough Triathlon Performance Centre, Lucija Petrovic, helps facilitate Cassandre’s training. She says it’s important the athletes go through this process; “It’s vital we take the athletes through this heat prep because it could be quite warm in Paris and excessive temperatures can prove to be quite detrimental to the athlete’s performance. We want to ensure she’s acclimatised to the heat so she can get the most out of herself on the day – especially as she’s now been living in Loughborough for the past two years!
“We’ve been working together for all that time and had a lot of time to create a relationship and trust between us. We set up a plan which we’ve modified, and it’s been nice to get to know her and to almost predict how she feels and what she needs – with those finer details being important come competition day.
“Making sure she's fully heat acclimatised before Paris in the case it's really warm but also to provide intensified physiological stimulus for a greater training response from training in the 'extreme' environment. A lot of people are not just using heat acclimation to get better at dealing with the heat but also to get extra stimulus from the training as well, so it's kind of a dual benefit.
“Obviously, our goal is to ensure she can deliver what she’s capable of and we think she’s can achieve that. She’s been doing really well throughout her training cycle and has done everything she needed to – so she’s in a really good place.”
Throughout her time at Loughborough, Cassandre has been supported by the full triathlon performance support team whilst the University has worked alongside the athlete and her bike sponsor to improve her cycling economy - reducing her relative energy expenditure and optimise her aerodynamics.
