The Paris Olympic Games (OG) are getting quite the headliner. The captain of the French rugby team (15s) and best player in the world in 2021, Antoine Dupont, will join the rugby sevens team – Olympic discipline –, with a view to preparing for the 2024 Olympics. Toulouse scrum goes ” to integrate “in January, “the group that will prepare for the Olympic Games”announced, Wednesday November 15, the French Rugby Federation (FFR) to Agence France-Presse, confirming information from The Team.
If the formalization of his participation should only take place on Monday, 250 days before the start of the Paris Olympics – and he will have to earn his place – the French player, who saw his dreams of a world title shattered by the frustrating defeat in the quarter-final against South Africa (28-29), embarks on a new challenge, on his 27th birthday.
” The digestion [de la défaite] has started and it must be evacuated. And what could be better than the club and new objectives to get back on track? »declared Antoine Dupont, Saturday November 11, at the microphone of Canal +, on the sidelines of his resumption with Stade Toulouse against Perpignan (43-34) in Top 14. In club, therefore, but also with the team jersey from France to VII.
“We couldn’t dream of a better gondola head”
After several months of speculation, where without completely stating it, the scrum half of the XV of France hardly concealed his desire to participate in the Olympic meeting in France, Antoine Dupont will therefore try the adventure. “A priori, he wants to make the Olympics. With Stade Toulousain and France VII, we therefore agreed on the principle. Now the only decision is up to Antoine, affirmed the president of the FFR, Florian Grill, at The Teamin October. If he decides, he will do the Olympics, and if he does, we couldn’t dream of a better lead for the FFR, rugby sevens and the Games. » The player decided, and the FFR and his club agreed to allow him to compete in the Paris Games.
If his physical characteristics and his game have everything to see him shine in this fast rugby that is the Olympic discipline, Antoine Dupont will have to integrate into a new group, learn this variation of his sport, and juggle between his Toulouse club and the gatherings of the French rugby sevens team. In order to convince the general manager of the French sevens rugby team, Christophe Reigt, and the coach, Jérôme Daret, to take him to the Olympics, he will have to ignore the next Six Nations Tournament and favor courses and tournaments with the VII of France in February and March 2024. He will thus participate in the two stages of the world circuit (World Rugby Seven Series) in Vancouver (Canada), on February 23 and 24, and in Los Angeles, on 3 and March 4, according to The Team.
Star of French – and world – rugby, Antoine Dupont will strengthen the Sevens selection, currently in fourth place in the world rankings. Like his counterpart in the Blues of football, Kylian Mbappé, who has also presented his candidacy for participation in the Olympics, the scrum half should be the figurehead of a team aiming for an Olympic medal.
He who had made participation in the Olympic Games one of the objectives of his sporting career will have the possibility. And if he will have to carry out specific physical preparation to switch to the “cousins” of rugby that he has been practicing for years, several recent examples have shown that it is possible to shine in both disciplines, such as the French Virimi Vakatawa, the South Africans Cheslin Kolbe, Kwagga Smith, or the New Zealander Sonny Bill Williams.
As for Stade Toulouse, which aims to retain its title of French champion at the end of the season, it had been preparing for several months to be deprived of its playing master. “We are preparing to live half a season or a full season without him”observed in June Ugo Mola, the coach of the Pink City club.