Hortense Limouzin (BBA EDHEC Online 2024), European and World 3x3 basketball champion

The basketball player Hortense Limouzin knows what it’s like to live life in the spotlight even before obtaining her BBA EDHEC Online diploma (due to graduate in 2024), a unique remote learning business course tailored for elite athletes. She became U-18 European champion in 2016, going on to win a succession of gold medals with her teammates in France’s national 3x3 squad – a version of basketball played on a half court with 3 players against 3 (instead of 5 on a full court): Nations League in September 2021, Europe Cup in May 2022 and World Cup in September 2022. She currently plays for Saint-Amand Hainaut Basket while continuing her studies for the BBA EDHEC Online. Here she reveals what life is like as an athlete and public figure, with an eye on performing well at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. 

How would you summarise your current position and responsibilities?

I’m a professional athlete and part of a basketball club in the Basketball Women’s League, currently the highest level in France for women. Specifically, I play point guard, which is a very different role from team captain (who can also be point guard). The responsibilities and challenges of this position include, among others, steering my teammates strategically in matches. At a more general level within the club, we try to capitalise on everything that is put in place by the club’s partners and management to keep the ship afloat and ensure the club continues to excel in the first division.

So you have a role that involves representing the club as well as your role as an athlete?

Yes of course, because beyond winning or losing as athletes, we also represent the club’s image and its values: here in Northern France, work and solidarity, which are regional traits. The club deploys significant resources to remain in this division, and continues to survive with humility and modesty. It also has a training centre that gives us a reputation throughout the youth circuit. Each club has its own identity, representative of its home region. I’m originally from the Basque Country, but I started out professionally in Les Landes, a land of basketball and sport generally, built on family values. Then I went to Brittany and Northern France, which are a bit similar in terms of solidarity: people support each other to move forward. Depending on the region, you really get a sense of the different values and expectations with regard to professional athletes.

Has it become important to concentrate on branding as an athlete?

Branding has taken on increasing importance over the last two years, especially as we approach major events like the Olympics. It’s not necessarily something we are asked to concentrate on, or something that we’re helped with generally. I became aware of it over a year ago, and I see now that you have to make yourself your own brand to succeed and sell yourself as effectively as possible, and that applies beyond your club and your profession. Branding is developing considerably with social media, and there are expectations on us in that regard, even though it’s not something that is said directly. We are players, gifted athletes performing on a daily basis, and knowing how to project an image as elite athletes can only be beneficial for us. I’ve been trying to develop my skills in this area for around 10 months now. In the immediate term, it gives me a chance to communicate about myself, and also sometimes reach out to sponsors, but it will be of even more use at the end of my career, when I’ll be able to draw on the network I’ve established. That is an aspect which as athletes we work on in our free time and doesn’t impinge on our performance. 

Through clubs I got to experience the business ecosystem –media and partnerships – even before I acquired the theoretical knowledge from the BBA Online. With other EDHEC programmes, the reverse is true! 

Being at this School while also being employed by a club (and therefore seeing how it operates) brings value-added both for now and the future. My classes allow me to transpose onto the “real” world of business what I see on an everyday basis. You can also see a parallel between the performance indicators used by companies and sports statistics. These are evaluation tools that never lie. In basketball, points scored, rebounds and decisive passes are figures that define us in the eyes of clubs and coaches. That’s what gives us a “value”, it’s what determines whether we deserve to join one club and not another. But in sport there is also work on the ground – interpersonal relations with teammates, intensity, drive – that isn’t necessarily always evaluated and directly measured in numbers. And that’s where I still have a lot to learn in business, beyond key performance indicators. The more I progress in my studies, the more I see links between these two worlds. This allows me to move forward since I don’t have the opportunity to experience real immersion in a company. As athletes, we can be a real asset to a company if we can manage to combine our experience in elite sport with our desire to discover the world of organizations. This basically means not thinking that our status as a former athlete alone will be enough. 

With each victory, is the goal of testing your limits just as strong?

Last year we won the World Cup very early in the season, in May, and the Europe Cup was held in September. We could have enjoyed that sense of accomplishment and eased up a little. But my teammates and I and all the staff in the national squad want to contest every title and demonstrate that we are still the most competitive and are determined to continue to be the best. Victories have enormous value, they need to be savoured, but we also want to continue to embrace our status as favourites by quickly returning to training.

Are these victories making 3x3 basketball more popular?

Yes, for sure. 3x3 enjoyed strong growth after the Tokyo Games (first inclusion at Olympic level), and especially thanks to the Europe Cup in Paris. It’s a very telegenic sport. It was when the TV channel L’Equipe followed us for a week at the World Cup and Europe Cup that I realised that viewer numbers were increasing. Between late May and September 2022, a lot more people started to appreciate this discipline beyond just being aware of it, and that in itself is a big step forward. But media coverage of an emerging sport like 3x3 is about more than just broadcasts on public channels, it’s also about results of course. It’s not a popular sport like football, which will always thrive economically beyond the question of performance alone. My hope is that with the Olympics, all of these “small” sports which aren’t small anymore, will become known and loved by all.

3x3 also seems to be more accessible to the general public thanks to its smaller-scale logistics …

3x3 is closer to the rudimentary nature of basketball: street basketball. You hook up, cross paths on the court, or you watch and it makes you want to play. It’s very spontaneous. I hope we make loads of young girls and boys want to take up or return to basketball. Now is the right time to join a club if you want to play 3x3! But it’s also easy to just meet up with some friends on an outdoor court for a game. Originally, 3x3 was a mixed sport played to music, which of course gives the impression of smaller-scale logistics than organising a 5x5 match or competition. Beyond its relaxed aspect (outdoors, accessible, music, entertainment), 3x3 is a highly professional discipline that is evolving with the times. And just like freestyle BMX, skateboarding or breakdancing, I’m sure all of these outdoor sports will attract many spectators to Place de la Concorde during the Paris Games.

How do you cope with stress and maintain your motivation on a daily basis?

Motivation needs to be worked on of course, as it can fluctuate, which is to be expected. We can’t only be motivated when we win or play well. When we lose, we remind ourselves that there is a lot to be learned from the defeat, and it might make us more alert in training. Other aspects of our lives can also affect us. But it’s important not only to face up to that, but also, at our level, to be able to talk about it and not be afraid to say that we work with psychologists. We’ve heard a lot of athletes talk about depression in recent years. There is no shame in that. When we reach out for mental support, it’s to prevent rather than cure. We inflict a lot on our bodies, and at some point that has a psychological impact on us. The mental aspect must be taken just as seriously as the physicality. A growing number of clubs and national squads are recruiting mental coaches or psychologists. Nowadays, athletes manage to develop the body they want or reach optimum performance levels thanks to coaches, trainers, machines and recovery methods. It is now mental strength and attention to detail that will make the difference.

Do you feel there is more pressure in the world of sport nowadays?

With the development of social media, everyone is constantly comparing themselves against others. But in sport there is always the notion of performance. As each day passes and we get closer to competitions like the Olympics, thinking about selection or the various objectives can generate a lot of micro stress. You tell yourself that if you don’t do the work today, someone else will get a step ahead and take your place. That pushes you to constantly perform better!

What impact would you like to have on the world of sport in the rest of your career?

It would be pretentious of me to say that I’d like to change things in a world I don’t yet understand well enough, but I would like to enable women to play a bigger role in sport, continue to develop gender equality or sport in the poorest regions. I would like sport to continue to bring people together. As I see it, sport is a form of entertainment that combines devotion, passion and emotion. There are many voices out there with value that deserve to be listened to and heard. I’m also passionate about organising and developing projects, and there are things I would like to put in place in institutions like clubs, federations or the International Olympic Committee.