A top athlete for nearly twenty years, walker Yohann Diniz has participated in seven world championships, four editions of the Olympic Games and seen a number of presidents and national technical directors (DTN). The Champenois, world record holder in the 50 km walk, retired after the Tokyo Olympics in August, but still has a keen eye on the affairs of his sport.
How do you explain the drop in results since the record for medals at the Rio Olympics in 2016 and the London World vouchers in 2017?
The house of cards has quickly collapsed since 2017. In 2019, I said after the Doha Worlds that we were going straight into the wall by continuing like this. It is a global problem. We no longer know who is in charge. Everyone should find their field of expertise and an order of mission to be respected. The general manager [Souad Rochdi] should remain at the service of employees and the president and elected officials. We did not know how to find a leader like Ghani Yalouz had been able to be [DTN de 2009 à 2017]. The high performance director model who works with a DTN [mis en place en 2020], who, a priori, is still the desired model, is not the right one in my opinion. DTN must be at the heart and the center of performance. He must lead the France team, with the help of different managers.
Does the current situation have consequences for the athletes of the France team?
We remain an individual sport. There are individuals who will think of them and only of them. Others will think in a more global way about their sport and also at the base, like the clubs. Confidence is broken. With the departure of the last two TNDs, it has crumbled even more. Without harmony, everything is more complicated.
We lack humanism, and that sometimes affects the results. There were mistakes in Tokyo, such as not selecting Ninon Guillon-Romarin. Not taking Christophe Lemaitre on a 4 x 100 m relay is another. He could bring his experience, especially since we knew that we did not have a superperforming relay. Even though we have a very good generation behind, we have to put them in the best possible position.
Can athletes be heard?
Personally, I did not speak to the president about it, but I know that Renaud Lavillenie called him. We had a meeting with athletes and former athletes. Many of us realize that a lot of things are not going well. We also spoke with members of the steering committee. We all make more or less the same observation: the desire to go back to something simpler and that works.
Discussions are underway between the State and the Federation for the appointment of a new DTN and a new director of high performance. What do you think ?
A compromise would have to be found with the department. For me, it goes through a state executive who knows athletics very well and who is able to get everyone back on the same boat. Everyone is trying to put their own paw. It’s a bit of a mess. A real leader in sports policy is missing. Someone present to provoke an electric shock, to succeed in bringing together, to create emulation and to put back the human when it is necessary. Someone who has a peaceful relationship with the president. The current decisions are not going in the right direction, it seems to me.
Isn’t French athletics too individualistic by nature?
We had made it collective. When you’re in training, yes, you’re an individual sport. But when we go into competition, each time we get a collective behind us. You have to have this vision: a performance does not happen by itself by magic, it is done with a trainer, a technical executive, a federation, managers, medical staff, a club, volunteers …