The French Cycling Federation (FFC) on Thursday formalized the appointment of Grégory Baugé, one of the big names in French track, as national sprint coach from March 1.
Thirteen months after the announcement of his retirement from sport, Baugé finds a place of choice in the French team under the authority of his former coach Florian Rousseau, who became the director of the Olympic program for the French teams last fall. .
Baugé, 37, is one of the most successful sprinters in contemporary French track history. Four-time world champion in individual sprint, he was the permanent starter of the sprint team for a long time and won five world titles in this event between 2006 and 2015.
Paris 2024 objective
Holder of four Olympic medals (three silver, one bronze), obtained in Beijing in 2008, London in 2012 and Rio in 2016, the West Indian-born track rider has never won Olympic gold as a runner. .
“This appointment responds to the need to prepare the French sprint team as well as possible in view of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games”, declared the FFC about Baugé, who last year trained Marie Patouillet, bronze medalist at the Tokyo Paralympic Games.
“His first major sporting objective will be to make the French athletes shine, whom he knows well for having rubbed shoulders with them in recent years as a training partner, at the next track cycling world championships” scheduled for October at the national velodrome. of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, added the FFC.
Since Rousseau’s resignation as national coach in 2013, the French sprint has been led by very different coaching profiles. New Zealander Justin Grace, then moved to the British camp, was succeeded by Laurent Gané, former Olympic team champion, then since 2017 Hermann Terryn in a duet with Clara Sanchez.