With a grimace, Makenson Gletty gently massages his stiff muscles. With superhuman works, “terrible aches”. The Haut-Savoyard runs, jumps, throws and launches into the air. At the beginning of March, he finished in a promising fifth place in the heptathlon at the World Indoor Athletics Championships in Glasgow (Scotland). “Usually I don’t do interviews directly afterwards, rather cold baths”laughs the person concerned, revealing his happy teeth under a broad smile.
Usually, there are very few interviews. The French decathlon champion, aged 25, is far from the media aura of his compatriot Kevin Mayer, world record holder in the discipline. “I maintain the mysteryjokes Gletty. But it’s playing tricks on me: I’m just making up my seasonal expenses and I’m not allowing myself any extras. It’s a time-consuming individual sport that doesn’t generate much income and it’s hard to do a side job. Fortunately my club, the national police and the federation give me their support. »
However, this is not the athlete’s first success. In September 2023, it is became the sixth best French performer in history after achieving 8,443 points at the Talence meeting (Gironde). “I narrowly missed the World Championships in Budapest [en août de la même année] et I wanted to show that I had my place among the best. I only walk on spikes: you have to roll over them for me to wake up. » This leading performance assured him “ at 96% » qualification for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, allowing him to grab precious places in the World Athletics rankings, the international federation (it is currently 15e).
With Mayer, “we’re a bit of the opposite”
In a nod to history, it was also in Talence that, on September 16, 2018, Kevin Mayer erased the mark of the American Ashton Eaton from the shelves, with a score of 9,126 points. However, the comparison ends here. “We get along well but we are a bit opposites: in a decathlon, in communication, in our objectives… I do not suffer from his shadow, I see myself more as a successor”explains the Savoyard.
The two combines evolve in polar opposites, even in their strategies. If Makenson Gletty bet on the ranking to qualify for the Olympics – increasing the number of competitive outings this winter – the Montpellier took the tangent, preferring to ensure his qualification in one go. To do this, he will have to achieve the Olympic minimums, set at 8,460 points, before June 30. The Olympic vice-champion is used to playing with fire: in 2012, he validated his ticket to London just three weeks before the opening ceremony. The fact remains that his aborted attempt in March in the United States rekindled doubts about his presence in Paris this summer.
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