Romain Blary: Carouge’s Olympic drive belt on sacrifices in sport.

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Every water polo fan in Switzerland cannot overlook Carouge’s center forward and menace at the two-meter position. Wball.ch talked with Romain Blary about his past as a French national team player and Olympian and his second water polo career in Canton Geneva when he was about to quit water polo.

wball.ch: Perhaps you could tell us when and where you started playing water polo?

Romain Blary: I’m originally a swimmer, and then I started playing in Angoulême. When I was about twelwe, the water Polo coach approached me and said, “You swim fast, you’re tall, wouldn’t you like to try?” And just like any little boy with a ball, it’s a lot more fun. At Angoulême, I played for a few years, going through all the lower divisions like N3 and N2. Then I spent a year at INSEP (National Institute of Sport, Expertise, and Performance), then 3 years in Nice, and then moved to Spain for 5 years.
I was at CN Mataró, near Barcelona. After the Spanish experience, I came back to France to study and played for four years in Strasbourg before leaving for Italy, where I stayed for two years with BPM Sport Management. Then back to France, to Aix-en-Provence and then Marseille.
At that point, it was COVID-19, and my daughter was born. I almost ended my career, but Frédéric Durand, the coach at Carouge, contacted me and convinced me to come and play in Switzerland. I’ve been here for almost four years now, and it’s been a great experience.

13.01.2024, Montreux, Maladaire, Carouce Natation – Lugano Sharks, Romain Blary (Carouge) against Liam Savazzi (Lugano). Photo: Vedran Galijas / JustPictures.ch

The Olympic Games are one week, but it’s years of hard work.

Romain Blary: former French National Player and Olympian in Rio 2016.

wball.ch: You were part of the French national team that played in the 2016 Olympic Games. Can you tell us a bit about that adventure?

Romain Blary: It was incredible. The tournament itself was one week, but it’s not just one week; it’s years of hard work, sometimes complicated, but it’s a great experience. The staff, the coaches, all that stuff, did a great job of having us play in interesting tournaments, gave us good training camps, and it paid off. The pre-Olympic tournament, with six matches in six days. It was crazy, these are all six knife-edge matches to qualify for the Olympics, so it’s really something, especially in the middle of the season. It’s really tough, both physically and nervously. But we prepared ourselves better than the others. We were able to stop a week before the other national teams and had an extra week of preparation. We went to Greece, where the pre-Olympic tournament was being held. Finally, in the qualifying match, we won on penalty throws against the Netherlands: it was hard on the nerves, but it was still incredible.

I’d always said: my goal is to take part in the Olympics one day. For an athlete, I think it’s the high point of a career.

Romain Blary: Carouge Natation
13.01.2024, Montreux, Maladaire, Carouce Natation – Lugano Sharks, Romain Blary (Carouge). Photo: Vedran Galijas / JustPictures.ch

wball.ch: What about during the Games in Rio 2016?

Romain Blary: It’s the Olympics, it was a dream, a kid’s dream. I’d always said: my goal is to take part in the Olympics one day. For an athlete, I think it’s the high point of a career. All the sports are there, the whole world is watching. It’s a bit like the grail for a sportsman, I think. And it’s great to rub shoulders afterwards with all the legends, the different sportsmen and women we’re used to seeing on TV. You walk around the Olympic village, you go and eat, they eat next to you. It’s an unforgettable experience.

wball.ch: There are also games in 2024…

Romain Blary: Yes, and the French team will be there, because we’re automatically qualified, of course. I think they’re an outsider to be reckoned with, as we’ve seen in recent tournaments and the recent exceptional fouth place at the World Championships in Doha.
Thomas Vernoux is a great player on the rise, who’s hard to stop. The team is serious and can’t be taken lightly.

It’s a vicious circle, because to get results, you need support, and to get support, you need results.

Romain Blary on water polo’s visibility.

wball.ch: Can this give water polo a bit more visibility?

Romain Blary: Yes. It’s a vicious circle, because to get results, you need support, and to get support, you need results, so it’s a bit like a snake biting its own tail.
We hope – in any case the matches will be broadcast, but it’s hard because of course during the Games there’s not just water polo. If France manages to get a result at the Olympics, I think that’ll help the sport in the future, in terms of media coverage. Ideally, in France we’d like to sign a contract with a TV channel to at least start broadcasting French Cup matches. In Maseille, BeIN Sport was broadcasting Champion’s League matches, and that was great. But you need results, a few clubs that manage to play well at European level, and the French team that follows, and it all snowballs. TV and the media bring attention, and attention brings a little money from sponsors, and that’s how it develops, otherwise it’s hard.

Romain Blary always dangerous in offence. Photo: Bora Karamustafa

It’s hard to put everything aside for sport, when you have to prepare for your future. Which is the problem we had in France not so long ago.

Romain Blary on the priority of training hard for water polo.

wball.ch: After a few years in Carouge, how do you feel about Swiss waterpolo?

Romain Blary: Ah, there’s so much to say! For me, it was a new experience. The championship is quite heterogeneous, even in the NLA. There are huge differences between a team like Kreuzlingen, which trains a lot, has ideas, good foreigners and a game plan. It’s nothing like a team at the bottom of the league. And with only eight teams now in the NLA, the bottom of the table is almost the middle of another league.
But to come back to Kreuzlingen, it’s really a team that looks more like a top-level team elsewhere. Because from what I understand, the guys train a lot, often twice a day. Elsewhere, you get the impression that it’s less of a priority, which is the problem we had in France not so long ago. It’s hard to put everything aside for sport, when you have to prepare for your future. But to come back to the Swiss championship, I think it’s a good thing to have brought up NLB teams, and the idea of having two groups is not bad either, because that way there’ll be a championship within a championship, and that’ll make for a bit of competition.

wball.ch: You and Carouge had a great run in the Challenger Cup, reaching the quarter-finals. How did you prepare for this quarter-final and what were your expectations?

Romain Blary: We were aiming for victory, that’s clear, and we had prepared well, but we were penalized by absences. We knew it was going to be complicated, but for Carouge it was already great to be there, even if we players always want more, to go as far as possible! Carouge is a small town, and to have a club in the European Cup that’s winning matches, it was great.

 It’s by taking inspiration from players who are more experienced, who perhaps have a higher level of play, that we progress.

Romain Blary (Carouge Natation)

wball.ch: And you, with your international experience, what’s your role in this team?

Romain Blary: I see my role as a drive belt through my experience. I’m one of the foreigners: the foreigners on all the teams are the players who are supposed to be leaders, so normally the youngsters have to look up to them and draw inspiration from them. It’s a bit like that in all the clubs, and that’s how we can improve too. It’s by taking inspiration from players who are more experienced, who perhaps have a higher level of play, that we progress. It’s a lot of little things, like tactical placement, but not only: every day in training, the way you prepare, the way you behave, the way you warm up. It’s a lot of little things that are important, and when you’re not used to high-level matches, you don’t necessarily know these things. It’s normal, these are things you have to learn and experience in order to assimilate. Basically, this is what experience is abour: as long as you don’t live it, you don’t have it, otherwise it would be too easy!

wball.ch: Thank you Romain and best of luck for the championship.

13.01.2024, Montreux, Maladaire, Carouce Natation – Lugano Sharks, Romain Blary (Carouge)
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