Photography Thibaut Grevet
We were fortunate to share a few days with the recent French cross champion in Iten (Kenya) during her preparation. Liv Westphal takes the time to answer our questions, between two planes, heading to the World Cross Championships in Denmark.
Liv, born in Italy, living across France and Spain, after spending 7 years in the US, your life looks like a « catch me if you can » movie, what are you chasing? performance?
Liv Westphal: Definitely chasing performance but also what’s going on elsewhere! YOLO, right? I was born to an Italian mother and to a French father (Alsatian!). At the age of four I moved to Limoges, which I still consider my French home.
I started track and cross-country at 15, and it quickly became a passion. I obtained good results pretty quickly, and I took the opportunity to study in the US thanks to an athletic scholarship. Two months after high school graduation, I dropped my bags at Boston College, a university located 8km from downtown Boston. I had in my mind to go there and try to make it one, maybe two years … finally it’s seven years and three diplomas later that I eventually went back to Europe! Spending a third of my life there certainly had a huge influence in my personal construction, both socially and humanly. With hindsight, I am so grateful to have taken the risk to leave and form myself abroad to open my mind on the world.
What’s your mindset regarding the upcoming competition this weekend? You’re back from a full month in Iten, Kenya and you’ve shared some trainings with the best athletes in the world at the moment (not even mentioning the goat Lionel Fracture). I heard it was your first time in Kenya, how could you describe this unique experience and the impact it has on you ?
Despite the first two weeks when I struggled to adapt to the altitude and the hilly terrain, those four weeks in Iten were an exceptional experience. So, enriching both from an athletic and a human perspective. I turned the GPS watch off as well as my brain, and really focused on my feelings. Running routes were as beautiful as hard, meeting people from different nationalities and experiences, and seeing so much cohesion within training groups, that we don’t see in the West, made me leave with a great desire to go back there at some point.
I think I learned a lot in a month, but I know that I still have so much more to discover. And I could not ask for a better way to end my altitude camp than to training with Lionel Facture, the GOAT, who literally put Moiben on fire. Anyway, that was quite something.
What’s your mindset regarding the upcoming competition this weekend?
My preparation between Nationals and Worlds was based on a week of recovery and then a few sessions to stay fit, without overdoing it. At this point of the season, which comes to an end tomorrow night, the main thing was to stay pretty fresh both mentally and physically.
As for the race: getting to the finish! Manage well my effort, hang on, gain experience for the years to come. We have such a young team; tomorrow is a big bonus!
Hard to find the words to describe it, but the course is so epic that anything could happen … and it can work in our favor.
What’s next in terms of training for the rest of the season?
One week off in Italy to see the family and then track season.
Tokyo 2020 in mind ? Marathon ? What’s your forecast for the Distance crew performance in Paris next month ?
Definitely 2020 in mind, but still such a long way to go. Still not really sure which distance I’ll target, I guess this year will be a good way to see where I’m at. Sure thing, the marathon is on my mind, but not yet… Epic performances for the Distance Crew to come in Paris 2019. Can’t divulge anything else.
Liv ended up at the 22nd place in scratch and make a very good 3rd European row.
