The French quidditch team was in Nantes this weekend

In the Harry Potter book series, wizards are on broomsticks that fly. In Nantes this weekend, they are replaced by plastic tubes about a meter in length. The French team trains with the Nantes Elephants. A meeting of ten players for a federation which claims around 300 registered in France.

The first difficulty is to grasp all the rules and subtleties of a sport that is practiced with four different positions per team. The two squads compete on a rectangular field about forty meters long. On each side, three hoops are installed in height. The goal is to pass a volleyball through one of these circles, each time scoring ten points.

A physical sport

“It’s a mix between rugby, handball and dodgeball”, explains Tiphaine Pasquereau, one of the players. That former judoka turned to this sport for “the performance” before being passionate about Harry Potter. All the installations are manufactured by the licensees because there is no equipment manufacturer in France. “It’s an opportunity to meet at other times, it’s nice”launches Tiphaine.

The first two training sessions I didn’t understand anything. Marine Goudroye, quidditch player

One of the players, Marine Goudroye, explains be able to hold his “broom” while running without using his handssube. An advantage, since if the falls on the ground, the player is somehow “suspended”. For this fan of the Harry Potter saga, it remains difficult to understand all the subtleties of the game even after six years of experience. “The first two workouts I didn’t understand anything, adds Marine Goudroye. People when they look from the outside they don’t understand anything, what’s impressive is to see that it’s fighting, that it’s sticking.”

“I came with a lot of apprehension, I thought I would come across asthmatic geeks who weren’t at all sporty, but I was pleasantly surprised since I came across a sports team and quickly I liked the atmosphere”, confides the coach of the France team, Cédric Chillan. We are currently European champions discipline, but the title must be challenged this year.