With 33 medals obtained in Tokyo for an initial goal of forty podiums, French Olympic sport is not showing the best form of its life. Eighth in the medal ranking, France wants to do better in 2024, but is it capable of it, less than three years from “its” Olympic Games?
During a reception at the Elysee Palace on September 13, in tribute to the Olympians returning from Japan, Emmanuel Macron took the tone of the upset coach: “The overall record of these Olympic Games is not quite at the level we expected. On some sports, it is even mixed and you can’t build success if you don’t tell yourself the truth ”, had lectured the President of the Republic, urging the Blues to “Do a lot more” in three years in Paris: “Because these are our Games, it’s home and it’s expected. “
Strong turbulence in the federation
A review “Mixed” ? An understatement when we look at the results in Tokyo. Swimming and athletics, the two queen disciplines of the Olympic Games (with the highest coefficient of medals), rank last in the class, far behind judo (eight medals including two gold), team sports (six medals including three in gold) or fencing (five medals including two in gold).
The dunces of the French delegation snatched only one silver charm each, saved from the zero point by their respective star, Florent Manaudou (50 m freestyle) and Kevin Mayer (decathlon).
Even cycling, the usual strong point of the Blues, did not shine, with two bronze medals obtained on the track (team speed and Madison), which did not hide the fiascos in BMX or mountain biking. And the few golden strokes of rowing (Hugo Boucheron and Matthieu Androdias), karate (Steven Da Costa) or shooting (Jean Quiquampoix) are too isolated to hope to trigger a dynamic in three years.
Especially since apart from its disastrous Tokyo summer, the French Athletics Federation (FFA) is going through strong turbulence. It is weakened, internally, by tensions – chaotic departures of two technical directors (DTN) in a few months – and is just recovering from the clash media with Claude Onesta, the boss of high performance at the National Sports Agency (ANS).
Claude Onesta, the boss of high performance at the National Sports Agency wants to bet everything on the elite
The latter proposed, at the beginning of October, to ” to drive “ the FFA for two with André Giraud, the strong man of the “federation”. Understand: a guardianship that does not say its name. It is ultimately a former rowing, Patrick Ranvier, who was appointed DTN to try to redress the bar.
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