She also owes her achievements to her coaches in the Marseilles training centre.
Under the tutelage of her first coach she practised vaults from many different families
into the pit. Having such a large range of vaults under her belt has given her an ease
of execution and good spatial awareness. For the last two years she has been training
with the Romanian coach Nellu Pop. He felt at the beginning of this year that his
young protégée was recovering well after injuring her ankle in May (something she in
fact did whilst training the Varga vault), and that she was ready to accomplish great
things. Together they perfected the double twisting Tsukahara, practising it over and
over until she was able to perform it as well as she does today. Coco is also working
on a hugely difficult element on beam, the Grigoras (a running front somersault with
half turn).
"I get on very well with my coach. Although lots of outstanding girls train at
the National Institute for Sport and Physical Education] at the moment, I have faith
in the coaching team at Marseilles. I've always trained there and am planning to stay.
My best friend, Magali Carosso, trains with me at the centre and then there is also my
sister."
Indeed many remember Magali Chacon, who was in the French junior team towards
the end of the 1990s. Coralie is clearly very close to her. "My sister enrolled at the
Marseilles training centre and I followed her when I went to secondary school. She is
a close friend, there are only two years between us and she followed the same
gymnastics career path as me - so she knows how I feel, and she helps and supports
me. She is no longer at Marseilles but is training at the Saint-Giniez club for the
National Team Championships."
In fact gymnastics and acrobatics run in the Chacon family. Her parents and
grandparents are all in the circus; her grandfather was an acrobat and her mother and
father have their own trick riding act. Her auntie is a gymnastics trainer and her big
sister is a gymnast. "Because of their trick riding show my parents travel a lot.
Sometimes I don't see them for three months, so when I come home from Nîmes we
make the most of the pleasure of being together."
Originally from Nîmes, this adopted inhabitant of Marseilles hasn't always known
success. She has also experienced her share of injuries - to the hip and ankles for
instance. Nonetheless she approaches these situations philosophically: "When it
happens it's a real blow, but in a way it also motivates you. You can see the other
girls working out whilst you can do nothing, so that when you go back to training you
badly want to make up for lost time."
At 16 years old (in fact she will be 16 on the 12th of May) Coco sees life through
rose-tinted glasses, with a silver medal around her neck, and barring injury, a
guaranteed spot on the next World Championship team. And what if she makes the
podium at Anaheim? For the French it would be their first medal on vault.
Good luck, Coco!
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