Written by Trackandmemes, June 6, 2021
My name is Diego Milla, I am 24 years old and I have been doing athletics for 14 years. My specialty is the 400 meters. In 2020, I was indoor champion in this discipline.
What is your job at INSEP (Institut National du Sport, de l'Expertise et de le Performance) and how do you manage it with your studies and your sport?
I am doing an internship at INSEP since December 2020. It's a 6-month internship and it's also my final internship, an internship I'm doing after my Master 2 in sports organization management. At INSEP, I was given two missions. I am in charge of social networks so I create content on Twitter, Instagram, Linkedln and Facebook. I am also an assistant for the management of media relations with the INSEP. I organize the shootings, or the arrival of the media on the site of the INSEP. You could say that I am lucky in terms of organization between my work at INSEP and my sport practice. This institute allowed me to use the sports facilities during this health crisis, so despite the fact that I'm in training, I still have little opportunity to use the facilities. It's true that having to manage sport with work is a very demanding situation, but I've been doing athletics for a long time... I'm used to having to combine the "school" side with the "sport" side.
You were listed, so you were part of the people who had access to the competitions and infrastructures during the confinement, how did you live this situation from an internal point of view?
I'm on the ministerial list, and that period really made me realize how lucky I was as a listed athlete to be able to continue training in a stadium, especially during the first lockdown. I remember sometimes the stadium would open up for me only...so I was able to do my weight training. I realized how privileged I was compared to the others, and I felt that was a strength. I thought, "You're alone, and you have access to a track, while 600 other people aren't allowed to go. So make the time you spend here worthwhile. If you're here on this track, you're here to work, and you have to work for yourself, but you also have to work for all the people who can't work, and they deserve it as much as you do." This season, the competitions were for the listed. I made the decision not to compete because my coach and I decided to focus on the summer competitions and spend the winter season doing a lot of preparation.
Sur ton profil, on peut voir une bulle en story à la une nommée « chef diego ». Et durant le premier confinement, ton Instagram a beaucoup tourné à cause de ta fameuse vidéo familiale titrée « un dîner presque parfait ». vous êtes des génies. Mais quelle influence a ta famille dans ton sport et tes objectifs ?
For me, family is super important. I think that the family environment plays a huge role in the construction of an athlete. I am lucky to have a very balanced family with whom I am close. I live with my parents, and fortunately they are there because it is not always easy to manage the life of an athlete with everything else. On my own, I wouldn't be able to manage. It's an asset to be able to come home and find out that your mom made dinner, or threw a load of laundry. It's an asset to have your family around you and understand your athletic endeavor and support you all the time. My dad has been coming to watch me compete since I was a little kid. He knows my performances as well as I do, if not better... My mother comes to see me during the big championships. It is very rare that they are not present. A family that does everything to make sure that your environment is favourable to your sports practice, it is really a privilege and a blessing. The financial support is also to be taken into account because athletics is not a very expensive sport, but it remains a practice that requires an investment. I am fortunate that my parents are there to help me and encourage my choices. They are a support for me at all levels.
What is your relationship with your coach?
My coach, I consider him a bit like my second father. I have been training with him since 2012. We know each other very well and we have a great collaboration together. I am not necessarily in an "elite" club, but the atmosphere is family. For many years, I was training alone during my big sessions. I have a coach who pulls me up, it is with him that I started to perform. We have a coherent project together. He is the reason why I am still in my club at the moment, I am there to continue to perform with him. He has seen me grow up, and has detected the potential I had in the 400m. Originally, I saw myself doing triple jump. With him, I intend to progress. We make a great duo, and the performances I am doing today are the results of the planning he does and the efforts I make.
What are your goals for the 2021 outdoor season?
This season, I have timing goals. I would like to go under 47 seconds, and get closer to 46'50". I would like to make an A final at the French championship Élites. I already did it, but there were not all the best French athletes together, but I think that this summer, with the Olympic Games, all the best will be together. So to make this final would be a challenge that I hope to be able to take up!
And in the long run, what is your wildest dream?
Like any athlete, the Olympic Games that will take place in Paris in 2024, even if I start to get a little old. The Olympics is a dream. I continue to work for it, because dreams are good to have in mind, but you have to reach them! Professionally, my dream would be to be the communication manager of World Athletics, for example.
Courbevoie Athlétisme Club, it's your club. It seems to advocate diversity. How is the atmosphere there?
It's a small, formative club and super family-oriented. I came in young, and we all grew up together. We dance during our recuperation, it's like wondering if this is a dance club or a track and field club. The interclubs are an event of joy among us. This club is also one of the reasons I stay here, although I could go to a bigger club that offers incentives.
What does athletics mean to you?
Death! I'm just kidding. For me, track and field is a sport that is really about pushing your limits, and the 400m is the discipline that most embodies this spirit of perseverance. The first time you run a 400m race at full speed, you'll see clearly what your limits are. The challenge will be to work hard in training to bear the pain more and more, to overcome the difficulty to get the best out of yourself. And when you finish, when you have given everything, when you are dead, when you are on the ground but you have beaten your record or won a championship, the feeling of pleasure and self-fulfillment that you feel is incredible... Incomparable.
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