The latest addition to the RGENTec team, Iris Pessey combines her extraordinary performances with disarming simplicity. A portrait of a trail and skyrunning athlete who has chosen to put joy at the heart of her sport.
Photo credit :Ricardo Argese
Iris Pessey, sport at its peak
For Iris Pessey, the love of sport, adrenaline, and pushing one’s limits is a family affair. The daughter of a parachutist, she was born and raised in Le Grand-Bornand, in the heart of the French Alps. Her first encounters with competition came through cross-country skiing, alongside her twin brother. “He was the prodigy,” she recalls. “As for me, until I entered a sports-study program, I wasn’t very good. At 23, I earned a scholarship that allowed me to go to the United States to ski. But the university system and constant competition completely drained me. I quit everything and moved to Australia. That’s where I became a coach for the national team.”
For a while, her life was split between two hemispheres: half the year with the Australian cross-country ski team, and the other half back home in Haute-Savoie. That’s when she began running more seriously—so seriously, in fact, that sponsor offers started to multiply. “I could have stopped coaching to focus entirely on competing, but continuing to coach is too important for me—it keeps me balanced. I need it to stay independent and open-minded. Today, I alternate between my trail and skyrunning season, and my coaching season with the British biathlon team.”
Because—even though she speaks with great modesty—Iris is a spectacular athlete, with a special gift for skyrunning. Skyrunning is a high-altitude mountain race, above 2,000 meters, with slopes steeper than 30%. For the past decade, she’s been collecting medals and setting records. But Iris doesn’t want to sacrifice her body and soul to competition. “I’m less devoted than many others,” she says, before adding, “It’s true that I wake up at 5 a.m. to run before work and that I train a lot, but that’s because I’m aware of how lucky I am and I want to make the most of it. We’re living the best years of trail running!”
Separating performance from competition
If Iris has chosen to take a step back from competition and its obsession with performance, it’s because she has gradually realized how important it is to take care of her body.
“Around me, I see so many professional athletes whose bodies are worn out from injuries, overtraining, tendonitis, and stress fractures. That’s not what I want for myself.”
Iris’s little secret? It probably comes from her personality—radiant, lively, and full of joy. What she seeks in performance, in coaching, and in life is pleasure and fun.
“For me, performance means being able to give the best of yourself with the tools you have that day. I’m not chasing a title or even a specific time. It can be something as simple as maintaining good form at the end of a race or finding relaxation on a downhill. All these small goals, one after another, lead me to performance. I’ve never woken up one morning thinking I wanted to be a running champion!”
She goes even further by taking advantage of the freedom her unique status gives her to choose most of her races. “What I look for is technical courses—but also races with great energy on the trails. Sometimes it’s the location that attracts me because I know I’ll get to do a bit of sightseeing. I also love doing races near home because all my friends come to watch me, and I love that! Races for media exposure, prize money, or sponsors—that, I refuse.”
Iris’s approach to running is marked by lightness—just like the feather she wears on her cap when she runs, which has become her signature. “A friend gave it to me. He found it during a hike where we had an amazing route through the trails and put it on my cap. At the next race, I won. He told me it was a good luck charm and that I wasn’t allowed to take it off anymore. Since then, everyone gives me feathers, and I wear them on my caps.”
Photo Credit- Robin ISSARTEL
Recovering to reconnect with her body and her loved ones
Iris’s next challenges lie in how she creates space for recovery. Physically, she’s learning to listen to her body more closely. “Physiologically, I have excellent recovery abilities, and I know when to stop before burning out. My big dream would be to run the Diagonale des Fous (170 km and 10,500 meters of elevation gain), but to do that, I need to get my feet under control.” No matter the training or experience—sometimes, it’s the body that sets the limits. “After 20 kilometers of downhill, I get major inflammation. It’s really painful, and when I take my shoes off after the race, the skin on my feet is in shreds.” So, she experiments with different solutions, with help from health professionals. “That’s also why I’m happy to work with RGENTec. The Bye Bye Burn cream is really helpful for me in those moments.”
Iris is also very aware of the importance of mental recovery. She doesn’t hesitate to take a step back from the world—and from social media—when she feels overwhelmed. She also relies a lot on her loved ones. “No one in my family is into trail running. And with my runner friends, we talk about everything except running. Everyone around me does sports, but they don’t define me by my achievements. When I go climbing with them, for example, it helps me disconnect.”
But her best recovery trick, after a race or an intense training session, is simple: getting together with her friends for a drink—without ever depriving herself.
