Lola Villa: "For two hours, I don't think about anything except my boxing goals!"
Lola Villa is a master's student in Meef at the Faculty of Education. In February and March 2024, she became the university champion in kickboxing and French savate boxing.
It was in Reims on February 3 that Lola Villa won the French university kickboxing championship title in the under-65 kg category. This first victory was just a prelude to her second, won in Mèze on March 13 and 14: a gold medal at the university championships in French savate boxing, her favorite discipline. This double victory was no fluke: "I can't say I expected to win the title, but I can say that I trained for it! I couldn't have done any more," said the young fighter, who also won the French Open in 2023 with her then club, MUC Savate French boxing in Montpellier.
Family boxing
A crowning achievement for someone who learned to box as others learn to walk. "I started when I was very young at my father's boxing club in Bagnols sur Cèze." It was a childhood passion that she put aside during her teenage years before taking it up again a few years ago. "When I got to college, I realized that sport, and boxing in particular, really helped me manage the stress of my studies. I go boxing and for two hours I don't think about anything else except my boxing goals!" And to achieve them, Lola Villa has committed to two two-hour training sessions four days a week, for a total of sixteen hours of boxing per week.
She decided to pursue this passion further last year by taking up kickboxing. "I wanted to try other types of boxing, and the kickboxing class was right after my training session. The instructor suggested I give it a try, and my father, who also practiced kickboxing, encouraged me to go for it." Although the two disciplines are very similar, kickboxing offers greater freedom in terms of rules. "In kickboxing, you can use your shins, so the distance between you and your opponent is different. You can also throw swinging punches, which is not allowed in boxing, where all punches must be straight," explains the champion.
Competition objective
For the coming months, Lola Villa is focusing on new challenges: completing her Meef master's degree and passing the exam to become a school teacher. Here too, the young student will make sacrifices to give herself the best chance of success: "There will be no competition for me this year, I'll be training or boxing at my father's gym, but only for my own well-being. I also run and I'm going to sign up for a few cross-country races in January, but I'm not going to beat any records. " Her sense of priorities and maturity should once again enable her to achieve her goals!