Lola Villa: "For two hours, I don't think about anything but my boxing goals!"

Lola Villa is a Meef master's student at the Faculty of Education. In February and March 2024, she became university kick boxing and savate French boxing champion.

It was in Reims on February 3 that Lola Villa won the title of French university kickboxing champion in the under 65 kg category. A first victory that only foreshadowed the second, won in Mèze on March 13 and 14: a gold medal at the university championships in French savate boxing, her preferred discipline. A double win that owes nothing to chance: " I can't say that I expected to win the title, but I can say that I trained for it! I couldn't have done more!" declares the young shooter, who also won the Open de France in 2023 with her then club MUC Savate boxe française de Montpellier.

Family boxing

It's a crowning achievement for a woman who learned to box like others learn to walk. " I started as a child in my father's boxing club in Bagnols sur Cèze ". A childhood passion which she put aside in her teens before taking up again a few years ago. " When I went to university, I realized that sport, and specifically boxing, helped me a lot to cope with the stress of my studies. I go to the boxing gym and for two hours I don't think about anything but my boxing goals! " And to achieve these goals, Lola Villa has given herself the means with two two-hour training sessions, four days a week, for a total of sixteen hours of boxing a week.

It's a passion that she decided to deepen last year by combining it with kickboxing. " I wanted to discover other boxing styles and the kickboxing class was right after my training. The teacher suggested I try it, and my father, who also practised kickboxing, encouraged me to go ". While the two disciplines are very similar, kickboxing offers greater freedom in terms of rules and regulations. " In kickboxing, you can use your shins, so the distance from your opponent isn't the same. You can also use swinging blows, which is not allowed in boxing, where all blows are cocked," explains the champion.

Competition objective

In the coming months, Lola Villa is focusing on new challenges: passing her Meef master's degree and taking the competitive examination to become a school teacher. Here too, the young student will be making sacrifices to put all her chances on her side: " There won't be any competitions for me this year, I'll be training or boxing at my father's, but only to do myself good. I also do some running and I'm going to sign up for a few cross-country events in January, but I'm not going there to break any records. " A sense of priorities and a maturity that should once again enable her to achieve her goals!