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Federation at half mast
Paris is a party, Roland-Garros will be too. This is what Amélie Oudéa-Castéra promised, at the microphone of RTL, on May 18. The 120e The edition of the French Tennis Open, which takes place until June 13 near Porte d’Auteuil, in Paris, represents the first major challenge for the CEO of the French Tennis Federation (FFT).
Appointed in March, she also intends to make Roland-Garros an active place all year round and revive the practice of tennis among young people, who are less and less followers of this sport. The number of licensees even fell below the symbolic million mark in 2018.
Young hope
“AOC” knows Roland-Garros well, having played there in a junior semi-final in 1993. The previous year, it won the Orange Bowl, the world championship for young people, in the under 14 category. She has everything of the future hope of French tennis: among the juniors, she has in addition to this semi-final at Roland Garros, one at the US Open and Wimbledon.
But she chooses to give up tennis rather than move towards an average playing career – she peaked at 251.e rank in the WTA rankings. The young woman played her last match on June 6, 1996: a double defeat alongside Amélie Mauresmo at Roland Garros. She will live on these courts only as a crown by proxy, following the victory of her companion at the time, the Brazilian Gustavo Kuerten, in 1997.
Digital queen
Daughter of Richard Castéra, ex-director of Publicis and the Red Cross, and Dominique Castéra, ex-HRD of Safran, the Parisienne then embarked on brilliant studies. She is admitted to the Sciences Po Paris competition, with an average of 16.96. She continued with Essec, a master’s degree in law, then ENA. Within the Léopold Sédar Senghor promotion, she meets a certain Emmanuel Macron.
Graduated in 2004, she began as a financial auditor at the Court of Auditors. His career is spotted by Daniel Bouton, head of Société Générale. Within the French bank, she meets her future husband, Frédéric Oudéa, the current Managing Director of SG. In 2008, she joined Axa as marketing and digital director. Ten years later, Carrefour recruited her as director of digital transformation.
Fighter for sport
Amélie Oudéa-Castéra has retained her desire to link public policy and sport. In 2016, she created the association Rénovons le sport français. On the program: new governance in the federations, more transparency and equality, promotion of sport at school. In 2017, “AOC” applied for the post of Minister of Sports. The place will eventually go to fencer Laura Flessel. The former tennis player was asked in 2018 to lead the National Sports Agency, chaired at the time by Jean Castex, but she declined the offer.
On the other hand, she was interested in the post of general manager of the board of directors of Paris 2024, for the organization of the Olympic Games. Without success there again. It will ultimately take several calls from Gilles Moretton, president of the FFT, to convince her to join him. From now on, French tennis relies again on its former hope.
