Sara Labrousse

After a career as a synchronized swimmer that took her all the way to the Olympic Games, Sara Labrousse has never left her favorite element: the aquatic environment. Now a research fellow in marine biology at Sorbonne University, she looks back on her high-level career. Immersion in academic and sporting excellence.

A specialist in the marine world, Sara Labrousse has been diving into the deep end since she was a child. While she was already swimming in pools at the age of four, she joined the Antibes artistic swimming club at the age of eight, the Pôle Espoirs in Hyères at 14, and the national division of the French team at 17. She climbed the ranks, joined the INSEP¹ and won the title of French solo champion in 2008.

Swimming between two waters

During her studies, the swimmer made the most of the facilities provided for high-level athletes. First in high school, then in the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Sorbonne University. "I benefited from the whole approach to high-level sports at the university. I was entitled to tutoring, a rearrangement of my schedule and catching up on certain courses or exams with teachers," says the swimmer. And such adaptations are vital: for seven years, her days are divided into four to six hours of training at the INSEP in the morning, university classes in the afternoon and two hours of training in the evening. Juggling competitions, sports preparation and revision, the weekends are hardly more restful. "It requires great organization and a healthy lifestyle. If you don't sleep, you get hurt. It's a lot of sacrifices, but you don't get something for nothing," says the young researcher with determination.

After a scientific baccalaureate with honors and a degree in life sciences, she chose to stay in her element by studying for a master's degree in oceanography and marine environment at Sorbonne University. A subject she was made aware of at a very early age, during her childhood in Antibes, on the Mediterranean coast. "I’ve always been passionate about the marine environment and I knew for a long time that I didn't want to work in sports. Studying at the same time entails a lot of pressure and fatigue, but it also provides a certain balance and an escape when things are not going well in training,” says the researcher. The logistics became more complicated in the master's program when it courses had to be taken in marine stations: "So I did my first-year of the master's over two years and grouped together all the courses that I couldn't do in Paris in the first year”. The following year, a much bigger goal awaited her: the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Reaching the summit

For months, the swimmer trained and competed to achieve her goal of reaching the Olympic final with her partner, Chloé Willhelm. "We did our best performance in the final. It was a great moment because I knew it was the last time I would swim in a competitive pool. Then I quit my sporting career," she recalls. She brings back memories from the Olympic Games of sharing sports and its values: surpassing oneself, solidarity, collaboration, equality between peoples: "Everyone is housed equally in the Olympic Village," she says. She also remembers the immense collective joy she felt and the pride she took in going all the way. "Sports builds a personality for life. You delve so far into your mental and physical limits that you learn to resist," she adds.

After this extraordinary human adventure, she focused on her scientific career. Now she’s completing her Master's degree and is pursuing a PhD. "Sorbonne University awarded me an exceptional thesis grant because I was unable to take the selection exams for the doctoral school, which took place during the London Olympics," she explains. She is doing her thesis at LOCEAN²  under international co-supervision with Australia. She is studying the feeding ecology of elephant seals on the Antarctic ice pack. Three years later, recently graduated, the doctor in marine biology left for a stint at sea, then began a post-doctorate in the USA: "I wanted to understand how the evolution of the ice pack, as a result of climate change, influences predator populations in Antarctica, and in particular the emperor penguins that depend on it. "

Diving into research

Returning to LOCEAN in the summer of 2020, she focused her research on the feeding ecology of seals. At the same time, she had to prepare for a new challenge: the entrance exam to the CNRS. "Even though I no longer wish to compete as I did in sports, it is true that sports have helped me enormously. The CNRS competition is a long process that requires huge investment and motivation. There are some very difficult moments when you have to keep managing many things at the same time. Sports have taught me perseverance and not to get discouraged at the first obstacle. "

And once again she emerged victorious from this trial with a position as a CNRS research fellow in 2021. Since then, she has been studying a small shrimp, the krill, which is an essential link in the Antarctic food chain to understand the influence of changes in the ice pack and climate variability on marine mammals and birds in the southern continent.

For this purpose, she regularly spends time at sea. She’s preparing to return to Terre Adélie this autumn for two and a half months, after a short stopover in Australia. "It is an extraordinary experience to cross these impressive, paradisaical places where the human footprint is very small. But I sometimes have an ambivalent feeling: one of extreme freedom, and that sometimes our presence is too much in these spaces where the footprint of scientists exists, despite all our precautions," she confides before reminding us of the importance of conducting her research to understand the effects of climate change on the pack ice and its populations.

^{1 National Institute for Sport, Expertise and Performance
2 Laboratory of Oceanography and Climate (Sorbonne University, CNRS, MNHN, IRD, IPLS)}

Crédits photos : Mike Lucibella