French by flag, Aussie by nature

Meet Australia’s-own Le Coq Sportif who’s on course to win a quasi green and gold Olympic medal for his country of birth in Paris, reports Editor-at-Large Louise Evans   

When dual national Sasha Zhoya lines up for the 110m hurdles at the 2024 Paris Olympics he’ll have two countries cheering him on.

Born and raised in Australia by a French mother, Zhoya, 21, lives and trains in both Perth and Paris and is comfortably bilingual. 

“Ca va mon gars (How are you going my man?),” he calls out to a mate before dropping Aussie slang in a strong Australian accent. “See you later this arvo (afternoon)”. 

“I know I have a very Aussie accent for a French person,” Zhoya quips. “My French is good, almost as good as my Australian.”

Come the Paris Olympics Zhoya will compete for France, not Australia, and he’s pumped about being a favoured French star competing at “home”. 

He made the big switch, stitching his allegiance to the French flag in 2020 in what he described as a complex, head-and-heart decision.

Zhoya was surprised to learn that Perth almost became French territory more than 250 years ago and that more than 200 places in Western Australia have French names courtesy of French explorers who landed on and mapped the west coast in the late 1700s. 

Had it not been for Napoleon’s many treasury-draining wars in Europe and a greater interest in the American colonies, the French may not have abandoned their bottom-of-the-world expeditions, leaving the way clear for the English to take control of the Great South Land.

“Really I had no idea, wow that’s incredible,” Zhoya said “If WA was French, that would be a crazy divide. WA is so far from the rest of the Australian states it may as well be another country. 

“It could have been an international flight (from over east) which it almost is because it’s three/four hours depending on where you are in Australia. We could have had French cheese and French wine. 

“But I am happy that WA is not French because WA is a great Australian state. It would have bothered me because I like being half-French and half-Australian. Australia is a multi-cultural place. I feel like I fit in here as a multicultural Australian. I like having dual nationalities. I’d be disappointed if I didn’t have Australia as part of my culture.

“What I love about Perth is the people, the culture, the weather. What I love about Paris is the training and coaches at INSEP (the National Institute of Sport, Expertise and Performance). 

“In Paris I also like the people. I like the fact that it’s in Europe and it’s very easy to go from place to place. In Australia it’s hard to get from one place to another. In Europe if you want to go to Spain or Italy, it’s close by.” 

Born in the Perth suburb of Subiaco to his French mother Catherine and Zimbabwean father Yonah, Zhoya followed his older sister Manashe into Little Athletics, aged eight.

By the time he was 14 Zhoya had joined the Western Australian Institute of Sport where he excelled at pole vault under the guidance of a six-metre man, dual Commonwealth silver medallist Paul Burgess. 

In 2017 aged 15 Zhoya moved to his mother’s hometown of Clermont-Ferrand in central France, about 400km south of Paris, but continued to rack up air miles travelling back and forth between Australia and France.

Come 2020 he declared his intention to compete for France and joined the French Athletics Federation sprint-hurdles group at INSEP. 

“It was a very hard decision. I was born and raised in Australia and there was a huge part of me that I know is very Australian, but I was raised by a French mother and a lot of me was culturally a French person.

“The decision was complex. I wanted to represent myself and my family and the easiest way to do that was to represent my mum. Plus Paris 2024 is a home Games and not many athletes can say that.”

Zhoya made the transition from being the 2021 world and European junior 110m hurdles champion to compete with the big boys at the 2023 Budapest World Championships where he finished sixth in the final and set a personal best of 13.15s in the semis.

Life has since been a whirlwind and not just because of his endless-summer, Paris-Perth gypsy lifestyle. 

His talent, confidence and ambition have earned him valuable endorsements with Red Bull, Adidas and Danone (multinational French food company) plus he has his own YouTube Channel and an impressive social media following.

He also featured in one of the coolest stunts staged to mark a year-to-go to the start of the Paris Olympics when Red Bull filmed him doing a solo 110m hurdle race on the roof of the Stade de France, which will host the Olympic athletics program.

It’s a stunning 30-second video, filmed 46 metres up on top of the largest stadium in France. You can even see the stadium roof bouncing under Zhoya’s bounding feet as he clears the hurdles. Just another day in the life of a rising star who’s expected to help carry France to a top-five finish on the Olympic medal table.

“People talk about wanting an Olympic gold medal, I don’t want just one, I want a legacy.”

Zhoya likes the limelight and putting on a show. Not surprisingly his hero is the sports’ greatest showman Usain Bolt, who’s image adorned his bedroom wall back in Perth’s Subiaco.

“I want to be the guy that you come down to watch, and you had a good time watching him (Bolt) and he did spectacular things,” Zhoya said. “I want to be an athlete that everyone remembers. I want to be the best.”

Zhoya has a short timeline to be the best in Paris where French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF) President David Lappartient has set a target of 20 gold medals and the French Sports Ministry, with the National Sports Agency (ANS), estimates a total haul of 100 medals in Paris.

It’s a big ask considering France has not finished inside the top five nations since London 1948 when it finished third. But significantly, France’s best two performances came when it hosted the Olympics in 1900 and 1924, finishing first and third respectively.

Far from shrinking from the pressure, Zhoya is leaning in.

“Everyone wishes for a home Games and being a French athlete, competing on home soil with the French crowd, it’s something a lot of athletes won’t get to experience so I’m absolutely looking forward to that,” he said. 

“My biggest dream is to medal in each major competition: so the Olympics, World Championships and the European Championships. If I can get a medal in the three, I’ll be very happy.”