The two-time winner from Koh Lanta will not win a third time this year. Eliminated in episode 10 of Koh Lanta: The Legend, Clémence Castel returns for us on her journey strewn with pitfalls this season.
The only candidate to have won Koh Lanta twice, Clémence Castel was in great danger in this edition of Koh Lanta: The Legend. Immediately pointed out, the double-champion managed to hold out for 25 days despite the many strategies to eliminate her. She comes back for us in an interview on her career in this fourth season that she lived fully despite a certain tension on Coumba’s side regarding her elimination.
What did it mean to you to be invited to Koh Lanta’s 20th anniversary season?
It was an iconic season and that’s why I couldn’t see myself not being there. In 2018, I said that it would be my last Koh Lanta and that I would stay on a victory. But when the prod called me up and told me there would be a five-star cast with the most iconic and best adventurers of the past twenty years, I told myself I would be sorry if I didn’t go. not. It was a pride to be present from day one on this edition. I lived an adventure full of emotions where I experienced things that I have never experienced. I had never caught a harpoon fish, caught an octopus, or participated in the ambassadors. This is why I do not regret for a second to have taken part in it.
We heard you say that it was a comparatively very hard season compared to the three others that you had already experienced. What made this season particularly difficult?
Already the level of the adventurers on the tests, when one is faced with a Claude, a Teheiura or a Jade and that everyone is fully in the test, it is not easy to get out of the game. of survival where we did not have rice for long days. There was no cassava. For a while with the girls we had no fire … Survival was difficult. Also, I found it very difficult to make choices during the counseling. The casting was so well done that everyone had their place in this adventure. In traditional adventures, we see from the start the flaws of certain adventurers and this allows us to choose and vote against so-and-so. This season everyone was strong. Some were stronger in strategy, others in hardships, others in survival. So making a choice was very difficult. The last thing is that I felt in danger from the first day and that it was necessary to succeed in getting out of the game from the start of the adventure thanks to a collar, thanks to the fact of winning events , coming back after the Isle of the Banished. I had to run away every day to get to the 24th or 25th day! I have no regrets to have on this adventure.
Is there anything you would do differently?
If I had to do it again, I wouldn’t change a thing as every decision I could make was reflected on the information I had at the time. Even giving my amulet to Alix, I think I would do it again because, at the time, I told myself that I had the opportunity to try to move the lines a bit, to change the established order. . I felt that I didn’t necessarily have allies. I was no longer Yellow, I was not in the Red team, nor was I in the alliance that was being developed. No one came to see me about that so that meant they didn’t want me in this alliance. So at one point I tried to take the game on my own and try something. Even that, you should not regret it because it is the best solution that I found at the time.
“I would have liked to explain myself to Coumba”
We felt a tension on the Coumba side when you arrived on the island of the banished. Today, she considers that you are no longer part of her life. How did you react to this?
We know that Coumba is a person of character. Afterwards, I think we all react differently to the disappointment. It was his way of reacting. Now, I would have liked to explain my choices. She didn’t give me time. If I had had the time to explain myself clearly about my positioning, she might have understood me better. She didn’t give me the chance. From there, I said to myself that I should try to focus on the next event and make sure that it does not impact my state of mind to give the best of myself. Indeed, I gave everything but perhaps unconsciously that had consequences on my way of playing this event. In any case, I did everything so that it did not impact my desire to continue.
Alexandra wins and ends your adventure. How did you experience this at the time?
Obviously, there is disappointment but Alexandra was brilliant in this event. I believe that it does not make fall once its small structure. I realize that she was better and that it would have been very complicated for anyone to go and find her in this event. I quickly told myself that there was no regrets because it was not me who lost, it was she who went to seek her victory. She was very strong.
“I passed my Koh Lanta”
How do you see your Koh Lanta: The Legend adventure?
I played the way I wanted to play. I think that to succeed in a Koh Lanta, you don’t necessarily have to win. It is quite possible to succeed in a Koh Lanta by being eliminated at some point. We succeed in our Koh Lanta when we play as we want to play. And this year it is. There are a lot of viewers who realize that this is one of my best Koh Lanta and I agree with them. I dared, I played as I wanted, I assumed my choices and that was my starting goal. I wanted to do a Koh Lanta different from the previous ones. I think people discovered a new Clemence and, again, I left with no regrets. There was a year where I didn’t play the way I wanted to. It was in 2009 in the Amazon and I had so much frustration on arrival, I was even a little bitter that I especially did not want to reproduce that. There, of course, I did not win but I consider that I still succeeded in my Koh Lanta by winning tests, by doing things that I had never done. I have a very positive outlook on this participation.
During the broadcast, social networks are sometimes quite hard on the candidates. How do you cope with the various reactions to you?
I must say that I am lucky to be fairly preserved on that side. Afterwards, I would like to say that nothing justifies insults whatever they may be. All this remains a game. Certainly, some consider that it is a game and that anything goes. Maybe that’s what passes a little less with some viewers but it’s still a way of playing. This is also why I don’t want to hold a grudge against anyone even though we have voted against me many times this season. In the end, I don’t blame anyone since we all had the same cards at the start, some did better than others and we have to accept that. Some are criticized but I am preserved because I still put limits in the strategy so it may go a little better with people. Everyone has their own way of playing and you have to come to understand that it is a game so that it does not take on enormous proportions.
“Leaving a month and a half was a family sacrifice”
Got the feeling this was your last Koh Lanta season? Would you come back one last time if asked?
In 2018 I said it was my last so history tells me never say never. Now, it also remains a family sacrifice because we leave home for a little over a month and a half. For my partner it was not easy, for my children either. As long as the children are small, I will put the brakes on Koh Lanta a little and then we’ll see when they grow up. If I am in good shape and then it also shows up because it has not been said! I prefer not to go too far and say that it was my last because I have seen sometimes the temptation is too strong! (laughs) For the next five, six years, I think I have to put an end to it and then we’ll see.