Hélène Defrance (born 11 August 1986) is a French former sailor, who won a bronze medal in the women's 470 event at the 2016 Summer Olympics. She also won the 2010 470 European Championships race, and the 2016

470 World Championships The 470 World Championships have been held every year since 1970 and organised by the International 470 Class Association and recognized by the International Sailing Federation. When the Championship forms part of the ISAF Sailing World Championsh ...

. Defrance is a knight of the

Ordre national du Mérite The Ordre national du Mérite (; en, National Order of Merit) is a French order of merit with membership awarded by the President of the French Republic, founded on 3 December 1963 by President Charles de Gaulle. The reason for the order's estab ...

. Being a qualified

nutritionist A nutritionist is a person who advises others on matters of food and nutrition and their impacts on health. Some people specialize in particular areas, such as sports nutrition, public health, or animal nutrition, among other disciplines. In many ...

, she now works for French professional football club Lille OSC, within the High Performance structure.

Career

Defrance was a member of ASPTT Marseille. In 2010, Defrance and Emmanuelle Rol won the 470 European Championships, and the

2009–10 ISAF Sailing World Cup The 2008–09 ISAF Sailing World Cup was a series of sailing Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, windsurfer, or kitesurfer), on ...

stage in

Hyères Hyères (), Provençal Occitan: ''Ieras'' in classical norm, or ''Iero'' in Mistralian norm) is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. The old town lies from the sea clustered arou ...

, France. Defrance failed to qualify for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. In 2013, Defrance teamed up with

Camille Lecointre Camille Lecointre (born 25 February 1985 in Harfleur) is a French sailor. Career Lecointre competed in the ''470 class'' at the 2012 Summer Olympics. She finished fourth with Mathilde Géron in that event. She was a bronze medalist in 470 at th ...

, after Lecointre's Olympic partner

Mathilde Géron Mathilde Géron (born 24 March 1986 in Sainte-Adresse) is a French sailor. She competed in the ''470 class The 470 (Four-Seventy) is a double-handed monohull planing dinghy with a centreboard, Bermuda rig, and centre sheeting. Equipped with a ...

returned to studying after the Games. The pair won the 2013 French National Championships, and came second at the

2013–14 ISAF Sailing World Cup The 2013–14 ISAF Sailing World Cup was a series of sailing Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, windsurfer, or kitesurfer), on ...

events in

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

and Palma de Mallorca. Defrance and Lecointre were winning the Mallorca event until the last race, when they were overtaken by New Zealand's Jo Aleh and

Polly Powrie Olivia Elizabeth "Polly" Powrie (born 9 December 1987) is a New Zealand sailor. She has won Olympic and world championship titles in the 470 class, and is also a former 420 world champion. Biography Powrie and her sailing partner Jo Aleh, w ...

. Defrance and Lecointre won a bronze medal at the 2015

, and a silver medal at that year's 470 European Championships. The pair won the 2016 470 World Championships event in Argentina. In March 2016, Defrance and Lecointre were selected for the women's 470 event at the 2016 Summer Olympics; it was Defrance's first Olympic Games. At the Games, they finished third, winning the bronze medal. They were one point ahead of the fourth-placed team, the Dutch pair of Afrodite Zegers and Anneloes van Veen. In the final race of the competition, they came from the back of the fleet up to sixth place, which secured their bronze medal. After the Games, she took a break from sailing. In 2017, Defrance sailed

GC32 The GC32 is a class of hydrofoiling catamaran, 32 feet in length (9.75 meters) and constructed of carbon fibre, with a top speed of about . They are sailed in the GC32 Racing Tour, and have replaced the Extreme 40, Extreme 40's in the Extreme Sail ...

boats; she tried to find a sponsor for the 2018 GC32 sailing season.

Post career

After the 2016 Summer Olympics, Defrance trained to become a qualified

dietician A dietitian, medical dietitian, or dietician is an expert in identifying and treating disease-related malnutrition and in conducting medical nutrition therapy, for example designing an enteral tube feeding regimen or mitigating the effects of ca ...

in Perpignan, France. She had previously been working on the job part-time alongside her sailing commitments since 2014. In 2018, she was one of 18 French former Olympic and Paralympic athletes chosen to support the Paris bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics. As of 2022, she worked as a

for Ligue 1 club Lille OSC.

Honours

In November 2016, Defrance was awarded the title of ''Chevalier'' (Knight) in the French

, for services to sailing.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Defrance, Helene 1986 births Living people French female sailors (sport) Olympic sailors for France Sailors at the 2016 Summer Olympics – 470 Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic medalists in sailing Olympic bronze medalists for France 470 class world champions World champions in sailing for France Knights of the Ordre national du Mérite Dietitians 21st-century French women