Axel Augis (FRA)

2015 National French all-around champion, Axel Augis is also good on parallel bars and high bar. He aims for medals on these two events.

What made you start gymnastics?

My mother enrolled me to the gym because she did gymnastics when she was a kid. With my brothers and sisters, she enrolled us in children gym class to start and then I liked it so kept practicing.

What is a typical day like?

I get up between 7 am and 7:30 am, prepare and go to breakfast. Then I do my homework until 9:30 am At 9.45 am, I go to training until noon and then go to eat. The morning training is more focused on the physical preparation and technical work. After lunch I take a nap for 1 hour and watch TV or spend time on the internet before going back to training in the afternoon at 15:30. On the afternoon we are more focused on full or half part of our movements. At 18 I finish training and I go to the spa for a sauna and a hot bath for recovery. At night we usually eat around 19:30. Then I watch TV shows, movies and I do a bit of homework again.

What is your gymnastics’ best memory?

For now my best memory is the Test Event in January 2012, when we managed to qualify the French team for the London Olympics. I remember that after the competition, we went to eat together in a restaurant. I felt we just did something great…

Do you feel more pressure with a European Championships organized in France, with the French audience?

I don’t know…! Not at all for the moment, I don’t even think about it. But it may be a little unsettling for us once we get there. More than if the competition was held somewhere else. Now we have to transform this pressure into strength.

What did you feel when you won National title? Have you, for example, thought you won your selection to the Montpellier squad?

Since I came to win, I was happy and relieved. I was also tired as I also did the team competition the day before. However I had very bad start competition floor with a score of 12,800pts. So yes, I thought I earned made the team for the Euros, but it was not the most important for me at this moment. The most important thing is that I managed to win without making a great competition. So I thought I absolutely had to correct all the mistakes to make a best performance at the Europeans Championships.

What are your goals for the competition?

It is to be in the top 10 in all-around final, but I mostly want to qualify the parallel bars and high bar finals to be able to win maybe two European medals.

Thomas Bouhail about Axel : “ He has a great talent on parallel bars and on high bar. He can do something on one or both of these events.”