Portrait of Axelle DACQUIN--JULLIEN, normalienne and French football champion
Axelle DACQUIN--JULLIEN, a student in the chemistry department and a footballer!
The women's football team of the University of Paris-Saclay won its final against the University of Lyon with a clear score of 4 to 0. Can you tell us more about football at the University of Paris-Saclay and about the championship that you brilliantly won with the women's team?
Victory for the women's football team.
The Paris-Saclay women's team brings together players of all levels once a week: some have already played in high-level clubs while others are just starting out in football.
Moreover, the backgrounds are very varied, since we find people from bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, PhDs and sometimes even from companies associated with the University of Paris-Saclay, such as the CEA.
This makes for a very enriching experience and is a real advantage for the team. Moreover, there is a real cohesion within this team, even beyond the fields, and the training sessions are eagerly awaited!
Throughout the year, we participated in matches against other university teams from the Ile de France and these matches enabled us to reach the French Championships which took place in Quimper. We met 3 other teams (out of 8 initially planned) over two days. The first day was dedicated to the group matches while the second day was reserved for the finals and semi-finals. The stakes were therefore highest on the second day. In the final, we met the university team of the city of Lyon and managed to win this last match with a very nice 4-0 thanks to the very serious and applied work of the whole team and to our two coaches present during the event.
The tournament was really rich in experiences and will certainly leave wonderful memories in our minds.
How long have you been playing football?
I started playing football at the beginning of this school year (2023) but to tell the truth, I had wanted to join a team for a number of years. This was not so easy because during my middle and high school years, I already played several other sports that were also very important to me. Moreover, there was no women's team near my home, which did not make things any easier.
A determining factor was actually an annual football tournament organised by the lycée Chateaubriand in which I participated and which we won. The main objective of this tournament was to encourage the practice of sports during our pre-preparatory years, as there were no regular training sessions but rather a few matches between the different classes of the school.
The women's football team of the University of Paris-Saclay
It was this tournament that pushed me to do everything I could to find a team when I arrived at Paris-Saclay and to pursue, in a way, a little girl's dream. And I think I can say today that this dream has been realised since I joined the Paris-Saclay women's football team.
What is your background? In which year are you a chemistry graduate?
After obtaining a Baccalaureate S, I followed a two-year course in the BCPST preparatory classes in Rennes at the Lycée Chateaubriand, with the primary objective of becoming a veterinarian. These two years brought me a lot and my interest in sciences, which has been with me since I was a child, was greatly fulfilled by the multidisciplinary nature of the BCPST preparatory classes. Indeed, I had the opportunity to discover a lot about the scientific field.
My attraction for physics and chemistry was particularly developed there, thanks to one of my first year teachers, among others. This is what finally led me to pursue chemistry by joining ENS Paris-Saclay in the first year in September 2023. My curiosity for scientific questions leads me today to want to continue in this field, while making sure to keep a complementary contribution from physics and biology.
Isn't it too hard to combine sports and studies at ENS Paris-Saclay?
It would not be objective to say that combining sports and studies is a matter of course.
It sometimes involves concessions that can quickly become frustrating. But whether it's football or my studies, these are two areas that are very important to me and that bring me a lot on a daily basis. I even find that they complement each other rather well and allow me to develop new skills that can then be applied in various situations and to develop myself completely.
Of course, integrating a sport practice in an already rich schedule is not always easy, but I am convinced that it is always possible to move mountains when it comes to things that are dear to us. It's a driving force: it encourages you to constantly push yourself and your limits, and I would say that this is the best challenge of all.
What are your sporting and professional ambitions?
On a sporting level, I plan to continue to play football as often as possible, whether it be here at the University of Paris-Saclay or even in the future, once I have finished my studies. I would love to get more involved in the development of my team and continue the work already started by my coach and teammates.
And more generally, I would also like to participate in the promotion of women's football in one way or another. Finally, I would like to resume the other sporting activities that I have temporarily put on hold to devote myself to my studies.
As far as my professional life is concerned, I'm thinking of doing a Master's degree at ENS Paris-Saclay next year and then a thesis. A field that interests me particularly and in which I would like to specialise is that of energy.
Indeed, I enjoy discovering the different ways of producing energy and I wonder a lot about this. It is a subject at the interface of physics, chemistry and even biology and this multidisciplinarity constitutes a real interest for me. Moreover, the field of energy constitutes, from my point of view, a real challenge for the years to come and I really want to take part in this problem.
You wanted to thank your teammates, your coaches and those who supported you at the school.
This portrait is above all an opportunity for me to thank and highlight several people who contributed to this victory.
First of all, Frédéric Aeschlimann, head of the Sports Department at ENS Paris-Saclay, with whom I had long discussions from the first weeks of September, in order to be able to join a football team.
He followed me in this project, even though this team is not directly linked to ENS Paris-Saclay and this is something for which I am particularly grateful. I was able to understand that his objective was above all the practice of sports by students, regardless of the institution to which this practice is attached. Moreover, he also strongly contributed to my participation in the French Championships by making the link between the university and the ENS Paris-Saclay.
I would also like to thank my coach, Yann Imine, who also invested a lot of time and effort in my participation in this competition and who gives so much of himself every day to this team. He has also greatly contributed to the setting up of the women's football team at the University of Paris-Saclay and is fighting to democratise sports in this establishment by allowing students to take part in university competitions which take place on Thursday afternoons.
Similarly, my second coach, Éric Églizeaud, has accompanied us throughout this season on the matches and this, until the French Championships where he was decisive for our success, thanks to his coaching. He is also my futsal coach, a sport I combine with women's football.
And finally, because football is first and foremost a team sport, I would like to thank all my teammates, without whom this victory would never have been possible: Cassandre, Éli, Charlotte, Manon, Romane, Valentine, Aurore, Alicia, Jeannelle, Anne-Caroline and Léa. They all have excellent qualities on the field, but they are also very nice encounters on a personal level.