THE LONG & EMOTIONAL JOURNEY TO THE TOP

Marc Paré's journey to victory at the Tenerife PWA World Cup is a remarkable story of resilience and determination. Marc tells us how he dealt with losing his sponsorship and also how he fought back from a nasty injury to claim an emphatic victory in El Médano.

- Marc Paré

A NEW BEGINNING

Back in December when I lost my sponsorship with Duotone I was going through a pretty tough time. Emotionally I was a bit shocked because it was so unexpected. It came out of the blue. I thought I was cemented with the brand, but I guess they had to make a difficult decision. I just had my best result on the World Tour ever. I was fighting for the world title heading into the last event, so it was quite hard for me to understand. I took quite a big hit emotionally, but it all turned into something positive in the end, as I came back to Simmer and they made me feel right back at home as though I'd never left. We have a very good relationship, so in the end, maybe it was meant to be like that. I was not really expecting a reaction when I parted ways with Duotone, but I had a huge amount of support online from all of my followers. There was kind of an explosion of support, which was very reassuring.

I returned to Simmer in early to mid-January. We held some initial talks earlier in December when I found out I lost my sponsorship. I explained to them my situation and I hoped I would be sponsored by them, but I knew the whole industry was going through a tough moment. My plan was to get back in somehow, whichever way we could do. In the end they made huge sacrifices for me to rejoin them, which I'm super grateful for. I was able to start the season in full swing and I was able to do the whole tour and complete all my training. I experienced a huge dip, but then suddenly I was back on track. It was the start of a new beginning.

INJURY STRIKES