News
Sport: European runners-up, Sixtine Aelion drives her hockey team into the top flight
A third-year student on the Master in Management (PGE) and a recognised high-level athlete supported by SKEMA Business School, Sixtine Aelion has delivered a major performance on the European indoor hockey stage. With her club, Iris Hockey Lambersart, she secured the runners-up spot at the EuroHockey Indoor Club Trophy 2026.
The sound of sticks echoed close to the Lille campus. Held in Lambersart under the auspices of the European Hockey Federation, the tournament brings together the leading European clubs from the Trophy division, the continent’s second tier.
Iris Hockey Lambersart overcame Scotland’s Watsonians HC and Lithuania’s Šiauliai Ginstrektė before falling in the final to Austria’s AHTC Wien. “This second place means promotion to the EuroHockey Cup, the top European division. It is a historic result: no French club had reached that level for more than a decade. It was a magical experience, one that will stay with me,” says Sixtine Aelion. Alongside her studies in the Master in Management (PGE), she benefits from SKEMA’s tailored support for high-level athletes and completed the ESDHEM programme last year.
Balancing elite sport and academic ambition
A member of the France U21 squad, Sixtine plays at right centre-back, a pivotal position in defensive organisation and the build-up of play. Alongside her sporting commitments, she pursues her degree at SKEMA’s Lille campus under a dedicated scheme for elite athletes. The programme includes a flexible timetable, personalised support and close academic coordination, enabling students to combine intensive training with academic standards.
Through this achievement, SKEMA reaffirms its commitment to a dual academic and sporting pathway, where discipline, time management and team spirit underpin success both on the pitch and in the lecture theatre.
