"You certainly don't hear a child say 'I'm going to play darts'" - Thibaut Tricole hopes to bring darts to the French masses
PDC
Thibault Tricole gets the honour of opening the 2025 World Darts Championship on December 15th. In the very first match of the tournament, 'The French Touch' will take on Australian qualifier Joe Comito. The winner of that match will then take on reigning world champion Luke Humphries later in the evening.
For Tricole it will be his second participation in the PDC World Darts Championship, last year he was sent home in the second round after a 3-0 defeat to Rob Cross. The Frenchman realizes that once again, he does not have an easy draw. "I'm going to focus on the first (round) but I have to win to have this chance," Tricole told AFP. "At every tournament, you feel a huge fervour, but at the world championships, as it's during the holiday season, I have the impression that each spectator experiences the event 200 percent. All passionate and slightly competitive players dream of participating in this ultimate event."
Darts has never exactly had a boom period in France, but through the emergence of the likes of Tricole and PDC Tour Card holder Jacques Labre, interest in the sport is growing. "You certainly don't hear a child say 'I'm going to play darts'," he admits.
As such, when Tricole moved to Belgium for his studies as an architect, he also found benefits for his darts career. "Facing players much stronger than what I could find in France," he explains. "I had two or three really difficult years," Tricole said of playing darts in a country where it "didn't reach any media and there are very few potential sponsors".
"For 15 years, people would tell me 'Oh yeah, you play in bars, you drink beers'... However, when I talk to high-level athletes, we have the same language," he concludes. "Even if I don't make the same efforts in (physical) training as them, mentally, it's clear that we're on the same wavelength."
The moment you have all been waiting for... 🙌
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) November 27, 2024
Here's the Pre-Christmas Schedule for the 2024/25 @paddypower World Darts Championship, starting December 15.
👉 https://t.co/IoJjAXopxW pic.twitter.com/qjERXBs9Qi
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