Countdown started for the AIDA Freediving World Championship 2019 which will take place in Villefranche-sur-Mer Bay from September 2 to 15. The Marseille athlete Morgan Bourc’his, who dreams of reclaiming his title in constant weight without fins, has been preparing for several months for his final world championships. He answered our questions a few days before the start of the competition (Photo above: Bill Rhamey).Dive!: In the freediving world, you are nicknamed both “the blue man” and “Mister Perfect”. Why?Morgan Bourc’his: The oldest one is Mister Perfect; it dates back to 2012 with the French team. I used to pay attention to everyone, making sure to avoid intra-group tensions, so my teammates gave me this nickname. It eventually rubbed off on my practice; I perform perfectly controlled water exits. The« blue man” arrived a little later, after the publication of a profile written by Luc Le Vaillant in Libération in January 2016.
Dive!: Breaststroke is at the heart of your sports career, whether during your swimming lessons, dynamic apnea without fins, or constant weight without fins. Why did you favor this stroke?
Morgan Bourc’his: As a child, it was my preferred stroke. I learned to swim in my hometown Joué-Lès-Tours, with Jean-Louis Béraudy and the JTN club. This early learning was very useful much later, a freediver was not necessarily a swimmer initially. Mastery of this technical background allowed me to specialize in no-fins. It has become somewhat of my trademark, and some of the workshops I lead focus on this swimming technique, using my swimming perspective to make the trainees more aquatic.Dive!: Since 2015, you are a “professional freediving champion”, as you state on your site. What does this job entail?Morgan Bourc’his: Today, I manage to live from my image as a freediver while being able to dedicate myself to my sport. I am a business owner with several activities centered around freediving: sponsorship, leading workshops for the general public and corporate conferences… Being professional allows me to manage my schedule more easily, and for example, to spend five weeks in the Bahamas to prepare for Vertical Blue, one of the major competitions on the circuit. Yet, we are far from the professional athletes of major sports like football, swimming, or cycling who are employed by a club and can fully devote themselves to their activity.Dive!: How have you prepared for these last AIDA world championships?Morgan Bourc’his: These are my last world championships, but not necessarily the end of competition! I’ve been preparing since November 2018, with daily or twice-daily training sessions and different cycles, sometimes with less apnea, more pool time, dry apnea on a bike or rowing machine, strength training, as well as trail running and cycling. But anyway, to be good, you have to do apnea, lots of apnea, with the objective of expending effort using as little oxygen as possible.Dive!: And a week before the start of the competition, how do you feel?Morgan Bourc’his: I’m happy with my preparation, I chose not to go to Roatan for the CMAS worlds because it was not a good option for me to manage two championships in two months, with time zone adjustments and recovery to consider… I wanted to concentrate my preparation in Marseille, at home: the conditions there are more challenging than in Nice. The mistral can drop the temperature from 26 to 14°C in mid-summer in just 2 days. It’s very destabilizing for training. The current and waves also play a part. But I think I’ve managed. I sometimes went to Nice when conditions were too difficult at home.Dive!: How do you handle announcements on the eve of the competition, and do you already have an idea of what you’re going to announce for the two events you’ll participate in, constant weight without fins and free immersion?Morgan Bourc’his: The announcement is supposed to reflect the confidence you have in yourself, you shouldn’t fool yourself. There is also a bit of bluffing; it’s important to have safeguards – coach, teammates – to temper enthusiasm. You also need to consider external factors, the current, possible delays during the competition. At the moment I have a vague idea of what I might announce, but I still have things to fine-tune. You have to account for how you’re feeling the day before the competition. It’s easier for me now to manage this thanks to my experience.Dive!: Have you ever made an announcement you had never achieved in training?Morgan Bourc’his: Yes, the first time I announced 90 meters during the pre-competition in Cyprus before the AIDA worlds in 2015, I had never dived to that depth. However, it was during this same pre-competition that Guillaume Néry experienced a blackout due to an organizer’s error, and it affected me mentally, so I couldn’t repeat that announcement during the subsequent worlds. Until then, I never had trouble with my mindset, but since then, I train with a mental coach using the Apter method, based on different mental states and our ability to juggle them.Dive!: Why have you decided to stop participating in federations’ freediving championships?Morgan Bourc’his: I attended my first world championship in 2005, and this will be the thirteenth. As they always occur between August and September, the summer is devoted to final preparations. I aspire to have somewhat calmer summers and also need time for other activities that are important to me: expeditions, writing, conferences. But as mentioned earlier, I’m not stopping the practice, nor my training and competition. I’m just stopping the world championship format.
Dive!: Early this year you went with director Jean-Charles Granjon to the Norwegian far North to meet orcas and humpback whales. Where are you with this project?Morgan Bourc’his: It was an exploration phase, we faced difficult conditions and met the various players involved in this documentary that will be filmed next November: the cetaceans of course, but also the providers taking tourists to see the orcas (the whales watchers), the herring fishermen, the scientists without forgetting the Sami people, the last indigenous people of Europe.Dive!: You are also very involved in scientific research on the psychological and physiological aspects of performance in freediving. What does this involve and what motivates you?Morgan Bourc’his: I started freediving with this scientific aspect when I was a student; my field of study was exercise physiology, and since I loved freediving, I began research related to this activity. I’ve always wanted to keep in touch with the hyperbaric world, so I act as a “guinea pig” as an athlete, notably with Professor Coulange in the hyperbaric medicine department of Marseille hospitals. I have also participated in a study on blackouts: some divers have a higher sensitivity to these blackouts, and it’s about gaining a better understanding of our physiology.Dive!: What are your plans after this competition?Morgan Bourc’his: In the coming months, I’ll be quite busy ;-). I’m organizing four freediving workshops between the south of France and the Paris region, two trips to Bali and Mexico for the Asian and American subsidiaries of my watchmaking partner Tudor, a 10 km sea swim to raise funds for associations working in pediatric cancer care units, writing two books, one related to Norway and the other on personal development and the Apter coaching method, in collaboration with speaker and mental coach Frédéric Lincker.
Interview by Sandrine Leveugle-Souan