Former professional rugby player in France, Xavier Days launched a Herculean challenge at the start of the pandemic: to participate in two years in one of the most extreme triathlons: the Norsemen, in Norway. However, there is a catch: he has never done a triathlon in his life! Radio-Canada Sports will accompany Xavier in this physical, but also personal quest. Before following him on his adventure, we give him the floor so that he can introduce himself!
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Although I am young, my life is already busy.
What is a quiet life? I do not know. But a life strewn with more thorns than flowers, that I know.
Born in Lyon, France, one evening on December 25, I am already part of a rare species.
In the middle of a sibling of two sisters, I stand out quickly… by my weight. To overcome this, I find an escape route that is grafted into my life and I still follow myself: sport.
Xavier Days when he was little
Photo: Radio-Canada / Xavier Dayson
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More specifically rugby. For 12 years, I had the chance to practice this brute sport practiced by gentlemen (in our jargon, that’s how we define it). A discipline that turns out to be the school of life for me. You learn rigor, work, performance, travel.
You also acquire the basic sportsman’s panoply, which is important in your communication: night trips with friends, alcohol, girls, show off
. In all this, your little person learns to live, to cohabit, to adapt to different cultures. She falls, she gets up, she starts again.
Convinced that life is hard, I am missing a piece of my puzzle: the mind.
My ascent began five years ago, in my misfortune, with a serious hand injury during a match. To top it off, a painful sentimental break, followed by a fundamental discovery: human nature
. I am hurt. It’s only now that I understand that it was just learning: l’orchestration divine
.
Xavier Days receives physiotherapy treatment
Photo : Radio-Canada / Rachel McGrory
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So I decide to refocus on my life and take it as I see fit.
So to think big, you have to go where it is big, right? Leaving for New York on my 30th birthday. Two months that change my life with crazy and outlandish anecdotes. It’s decided, I want to live there!
How to do? I’m in Paris in a consulting firm, where it’s a white shirt and a neat suit. Once again, in my misfortune, I get fired. The same evening, under the scent of amber rum, I issue a decree: It’s decided, I sell everything and I pull myself to America
.
After a catastrophic stint in Miami, where I taste the sweet life and at Puff Daddy, it’s time to focus. I take the road to Montreal with not much in my pocket, but with determination, mind, heart. Now I’m a big car that drives fast and worst of all, no reverse gear.
The athlete and entrepreneur Xavier Dayson
Photo: Radio-Canada / Xavier Dayson
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So in my conditioning, I understood that you need a plan A, but a reliable plan B. So much the better, I have it.
Tiptoeing into a financial institution, I quickly manage to stand out and evolve. Until that famous confinement where your life changed like mine… Today, I am a young athlete and entrepreneur with the firm conviction that I can change things. In solitude, I pushed myself to discover a new discipline, triathlon. I chose to go from wanting to doing.
My whole life is the result of learning. Sport has been such a richness in my life, it has shaped my person. I have built my own MBA from life. Hard times are meant to build you up and to this day no one has succeeded without failing.
Your eyes will always see your future before your feet, so DARK.
This story is mine and it is written in black and white!
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Presentation by Xavier Days
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