Team Care : Pauline
The French Throwdown is made up of a very large team of volunteers, of which Pauline has been a member since the beginning of the competition. She tells us about it.
An unmissable event
The French Throwdown is THE CrossFit meeting in France. THE PLACE TO BE on the last weekend of June and I’ve been a volunteer there since the beginning, in 2013.
I had seen the Fitness Championship in 2012 as a spectator and I thought it was cool to have a CrossFit competition in France.
In 2013, Daniel Chaffey, the owner of my gym, must have said something like “Hey, at the end of June we are organizing the French Throwdown. we need volunteers, are you ok? It will be cool, there will be entertainment and beer. I couldn’t say no! At the time, CrossFit was starting to be known in France and we started at the INSEP.
Her role as a volunteer
The first year, we were a small team selling FTD t-shirts and CrossFit clothes. There wasn’t really a “village” as we know it now, with all the partners. The next year I joined the spectator desk, and a few years later we were helping with the athlete checking.
Being a volunteer at the French is something we do because we enjoy it. The athletes and spectators thank us every year. In 10 years, it has grown considerably. The welcome is an important part of French, because people remember how they were welcomed, and it is essential that they have a good memory from the start.
Meetings, reunions and memories
The French also means being able to meet volunteers from other boxes, athletes from other countries, and to see with pleasure a lot of people we knew and who have left for other horizons. We also became a very nice team under the supervision of Sophie who always takes good care of us. I
don’t have ONE great memory, because there are always plenty. But the best moment of the French Throwdown is when all the volunteers and athletes get together on the floor and we pay tribute to those who serve France. It’s always a beautiful moment.
Fun fact: I kept at least 1 t-shirt from every edition of the French!
