Bellerophon said..
extract of www.windmag.com/actu-nicolas-goyard-titre-mondial-iqfoil-belle-recompense-travail-effectue-interview

"On the physical part, after Israel, I was at 90-91 kilos and I knew it would be a lot for iqfoil so I gradually lost weight to reach 87-88 at the start of the competition and finally 86 on the last day! "

More about the weight gaining : www.letelegramme.fr/voile/pierre-le-coq-en-iqfoil-il-faut-prendre-15-kg-16-08-2021-12808052.php

And here is his brother Thomas , former RSX sailor about his weight gaining from 73 to 92 kg to be competitive in IQ foil www.sudouest.fr/sport/voile/iq-foil-le-secret-de-la-planche-a-voile-volante-par-thomas-goyard-10732325.php

*The weight. Yes, you have to grow, I went from 73 to 88 kilos since Tokyo and I live 92. It's not easy, even if I starved myself to stay at 73, it was not my natural weight. So I did bulking, weight gain. To gain so quickly, it's not just muscle, there's fat too, and it's hard, I've lost my breath, I don't climb stairs anymore"

The same article explains how former olympic champion Charline Picon in RSX class (gold in Rio / silver in Tokyo) did not switch over to the IQ foil since "she would have to put on too much weight to be competitive."

An 'athlete' deliberately getting so fat and unfit they can't climb stairs so they can be competitive?

sboardcrazy said..

An 'athlete' deliberately getting so fat and unfit they can't climb stairs so they can be competitive?

You should see American football players. They put on a lot more than that. Even the fittest and leanest are 85-90 kg and it goes up from there. I long campaigned for weight classes in American football so that everyone could participate at the pro level but to no avail (j/k).

btw, I think that it's a bit a lot of hyperbole that TG gaining 10-15 kg leaves a very fit athlete unable to climb steps. If that were so, literally nobody would be hiking and camping in the mountains. I carried at least 15kg at altitude on a hike/climb (3000m) - reasonably fit but nowhere near Olympic level - older and smaller guy. I was about 73 kg at the time.

I lost 10 kg about a year ago. Totally wrecked my quiver and made it hard to carry my largest sail at times. Basically, I had to scale down a size. I guess that ends my Olympic dreams... (That plus me being 35-40 yrs too old). Having done essentially the reverse of using a weight vest and being slow before the wait loss, I'm now just concentrating on staying faster than paddleboarders.