Ep174 Adeline Audigier + Patricia Mehlich + Roseva Bidois. Women’s Decathlon World Championships Report

August 8, 2024
Adeline Audigier was born in the city of Marseille in the South of France. She is about to turn 32 and is living her second athletic life as a decathlete. She grew up in a sporty family. She and her brother and sister (triplets!) do dozens of sports. Adeline has a degree in EHS (Environment, Health, Safety) engineering, was a professional firefighter, and is now a shipboard firefighter trainer. Adeline embodies the multi-sport life: absolutely everything interests her and she wants to try it all. “My biggest problem is that I won't have enough life to do everything I want.”

When she was 30 Adeline began the decathlon project, which allows her to help her sport that has always offered her great things. For her, it’s important to contribute to the development of the sport by correcting the oversight that stalled the evolution of the heptathlon into the completed version of multisport events, the decathlon. 

Patricia Mehlich is German but has been living in France for about 10 years. She works as a chartered accountant. Like Adeline, Patricia is a multi-eventer on and off track. She enjoys playing the piano, reading, and writing books, crocheting/knitting, and gardening.

In the decathlon, her best event is the 100 meter hurdles, but she stresses that she’s not exceptional anywhere. Patricia is dedicated to the decathlon project, so girls don’t have to miss out on the pole vault, discus, and 1500m like she did. 

Roséva Bidois, currently a sport sciences student is a former discus athlete. She has been a multi-sport athlete (both heptathlete and decathlete) for a year. She is 24 years old and lives in Lyon, France where she trains daily with her head coach (Yann Celli) and other event-specific coaches. Roseva grew up in a large family with three brothers and three sisters. She was among the youngest so had to fight with my siblings to get what she wanted, making her the competitive athlete that she is today!

In the episode, decathletes Adeline Audigier, Patricia Mehlich, and Roséva Bidois who all represent Team France tell host Elizabeth Emery what it was like to compete in the inaugural Women’s Decathlon World Championships that took place in Geneva, Ohio at Spire Academy on August 3rd and 4th. These championships were historic and a big step towards achieving their goal of bringing the women’s decathlon to the LA Olympics in 2028 as an exhibition sport. Tune into the previous Hear Her Sports episode to learn more about their fight to do so and why decathlon is the sport for the complete athlete.

Follow Adeline on IG
Follow Patricia on IG
Follow Roseva on IG
Inaugural Women’s Decathlon World Championships, Spire Academy, Geneva, OH
US decathlete Lauren Kuntz organized the Women’s Decathlon World Championships
Follow Jordan Gray on IG
Women’s Decathlon on IG
French National Women’s Decathlon Champion, Noémie Desailly
Decathlon of Europe Women’s Decathlon page
Spire Academy