by Vincent Daheron
PARIS (Reuters) – Eight years after her title in Rio de Janeiro, French boxer Estelle Mossely will return to the Olympic Games in Paris 2024, her last, with the objective of a second coronation, she said on Thursday during from an interview with Reuters.
“The Games were a life accelerator for me,” said the 31-year-old athlete whose popularity increased by becoming in 2016 the first French boxer to win an Olympic title (lightweight, – 60 kg).
Estelle Mossely did not participate in the Tokyo 2021 Games because she turned professional in 2018. In 2023, the Frenchwoman returned to the fold of amateur boxing, with different rules, which is the discipline on the Games program.
“I went back to my source, to what made me tick: the Olympic Games,” she explained. “The Games are what gave me the most emotion.”
Undefeated among professionals (11 wins, 1 draw), Estelle Mossely has now focused solely on amateur boxing, also known as Olympic boxing, since her last fight in April 2023.
“I always have the desire, always the motivation, always the strength to obtain a second title.”
“The feeling of winning an Olympic title is quite unique, I said to myself that one last time, because these are my last Games, it wouldn’t be bad,” she said with a smile.
“I would like to be a flag bearer,” confided the boxer. “I want to put my experience at the service of others. I am the old one this time, not like in 2016. If I can help, bring to the athletes, I would do it with great pleasure because it is part of Me.”
She assured that the French Boxing Federation had proposed her name to the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF).
During the opening ceremony, the French delegation will be guided by two standard bearers, one of each gender, whose names will be announced on July 12 after a vote by all qualified French athletes.
Mother of two children, aged 6 and 3, with 2016 Olympic champion boxer Tony Yoka, from whom she has been divorced since November 2021, Estelle Mossely is one of the role models of sportswomen who have given birth during their career, such as judokate Clarisse Agbegnenou .
“It makes me happy to see that I’m not the only one and that it’s becoming more and more in tune with the times,” she said.
“I’m talking about it, we shouldn’t hesitate to say that it’s possible so that others can take the plunge.”
“I have created an organizational ecosystem around me which allows me to be very fluid when I have to travel, to train,” explained Estelle Mossely as preparation intensifies 98 days before Paris 2024 .
She makes sure to involve her two sons in her Olympic project as often as possible.
“It can also be a life booster for them. It would be a shame to put them aside, they have lots of things to live with me.”
An adventure slightly slowed down by a broken nose suffered during training in September 2023.
“He (his eldest) was worried: ‘Mom, are you going to be able to rebox? Are you going to be able to make the Olympics?’
Rest assured, barring any incident, she will be in the ring from July 27 for the first round of the Olympic tournament in the – 60 kg category.
(Reporting by Vincent Daheron, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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