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Tell us a bit about your background.

My name is Solange, I’m 20 years old and I’m from the South West of France. My father is a horse trainer in Pau and he passed his passion for horses on to me and especially gallop horseracing. I grew up in the countryside, among horses with my four brothers and sisters.  When I was 16 I started competing as an amateur jockey. Then, after passing my baccalaureat in economy I decid-ed to study in Pau to continue competing. After one year preparing for exams (French Hypokhâgne system) I joined a modern languages  programme during two years at the University of Pau. During these three years I had the opportunity to travel all around the world to represent France in international horse races (England, China, Australia, Abu Dhabi, Texas … ). 

Why did you decide to join the programme?

I heard about the emlyon business school through a cousin who encouraged me to apply to this programme, telling me that my profile could correspond with the school’s spirit. Also, I always wanted to link my passion with my studies, and later with my job. 
Furthermore, this programme is perfect for me because it permits me to learn more about the sport Industry at a national and international level and to discover new sports. 

At a larger scale, the horse racing industry is about to change and undergoing a deep revolution. It must find new investors, a younger and larger audience and also new gamblers. I want to play a role in this exciting challenge and I think that all sports have similar challenges.
We need to be at the heart of the subject to understand it and to adapt our vision to be an actor of this revolution.

The advantage of this programme is its uniqueness. It is not only marketing classes but also management, design thinking, digitalization and lifestyle trends. I never benefitted from this kind of classes before and I need them if I want to complete my projects. Developing a broad view of the sports industry is what I want, to link what I already know about horseracing with all the other sports and to learn from these other sports. 

Three words to describe yourself:

Optimistic, ambitious and creative.