256 pages Text by Johanne Defay with Franck Berteau Foreword by Laury Thilleman 22 x 13.6 cm Language: French Softcover Publisher: Flammarion 2026
The autobiography of Johanne Defay, the French surfer who took bronze at the Paris 2024 Olympics in Teahupo'o, written with Franck Berteau. Born in Auvergne and raised on La Réunion, far from Hawaii, Australia and California, she lost her sponsor at eighteen, partly because her body did not match the model-like image the surf industry was selling: short, dark-haired, muscular. She answered by training harder, joined the World Championship Tour in 2014 and has stayed on it since. Her coach and husband, Simon Paillard, helped her turn herself into an athlete in a sport that long trusted instinct over method.
The book ends with her return after maternity, Los Angeles 2028 in sight. A first-hand account of a career built against the image surfing sold of its women.
