World champion, Olympic medalist, Romane Dicko is an outstanding athlete on the French team. And she is not the only athlete in the family.
High-level sport is often a family affair. There are countless sons or nephews of American professional basketball players who have tried their luck in the NBA, with varying degrees of success. Stephen and Seth Curry, Gary Payton III, Scottie Pippen Jr., … all had a professional parent in the NBA before them.
Sometimes, the parent(s) of the athlete in question did not practice the same sport. This is the case, for example, of Evan Fournier. Although neither of his parents ever practiced basketball at a high level, they were both judokas and had joined the INSEP.
Thus, judoka Romane Dicko, bronze medalist at the last Olympic Games in Tokyo and world champion in over 78 kg, benefited from the family heritage in her training. Her cousin is in fact none other than triple jump champion Teddy Tamgho. World champion in the triple jump in 2013 with a mark of 18.04m.
The man who, three and a half years after announcing his retirement, announced his return to competition with the aim of participating in the Paris Games, was particularly attentive to his cousin’s training, giving her advice, particularly in media management.
“He’s the one who filters everything. Every time someone calls me, I send it to his number and he takes care of it. That way I only have my career to worry about,” Romane Dicko said in 2018 during an interview conducted by RMCToday the judoka has taken a new flight in her career with her Olympic and world championship titles and Teddy Tamgho has resumed a professional career.
This propensity of players from families of athletes is quite easy to explain. Indeed, the children of athletes often start playing sports earlier than the average child of their age, and have at their disposal knowledge of the workings and mechanisms of high-level sport, whether in the quality of training, knowledge of detection policies or the importance of life balance, nutrition and the commitment necessary to perform at the highest level.