A former handball medal collector, Claude Onesta is now the head of high performance at the National Sports Agency (ANS). As the Tokyo Olympics begin on Friday July 23, one year less than a day after their initial date due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the former coach of the France handball team approaches these Olympics by thinking of those after, in Paris in 2024.
What are France’s goals for medals, or results, at these Tokyo Games?
It is not our job to make predictions. On the contrary, we try to do everything to ensure that the athletes and coaches are in the best possible position to achieve their best performances. Our mission, then, is to analyze all this to identify points of weakness, and work so as not to find them the next time.
“The projections for these Games are very complex, and much more than usual”
But to say that we do not make projections would be wrong. The projections for these Olympic Games are very complex, and much more than usual, because the period is complicated: for two years, there have been practically no benchmark competitions, so it is difficult to decide. situate in the international context, and difficult to assess the competition …
Our projection is to have results for France roughly at the level of what they were in Rio, around forty medals [42 en 2016], but with so many random elements that we don’t see it very clearly, neither for us, nor for the others.
In this period where randomness has been prevalent for a year, can some not take advantage of it?
It is true, and we reminded French sportsmen and women. When all goes “normally”, the best tend to win in the end. On the other hand, in extraordinary Games, as currently, there will be opportunities to be seized. Traditions will be shaken up, and some outsiders will be celebrating.
But, for that, you have to have an ambitious approach. Some may have already started to analyze the circumstances as so many alibis in the event of underperformance; but at the end of the events, even if the context is unusual, there will be three athletes on the podium, one of whom will be Olympic or Paralympic champion. And they will have sought the result with determination! This is our message: rather than complaining about what you’ve been through for a year and a half, have a good bite in the competition, and don’t regret a thing.
How did the postponement of one year affect the preparation of these Games for French sport?
It’s hard to analyze in a comprehensive way. For some, this postponement is a boon: those who were injured, who would not have been qualified, or who were perhaps too young, will see it as an opportunity. Conversely, people who were at the end of the line, but still operational, may have seen their luck pass.
There have been fewer competitions, so fewer benchmarks, less performance level assessments, but this also applies to competition, which could allow more open competitions, with perhaps more surprises than normal time.
Does this one-year delay also influence the preparation of French sport for the 2024 Olympics?
The impact is real. The Olympic or Paralympic periods are cycles of four years, on which the coaching of the athletes develops a plan. This cycle was disrupted by the postponement, with, in most cases, a one-year extension of this usual cycle.
However, as soon as the events are over, most of the federations’ supervisors change their projects, modify the supervisory teams, or invest in other athletes … All of this will be postponed by one year and will be detrimental to the preparation of the competitions. Paris Olympics. Especially since after the Games, the athletes tend to rest, to recover.
“The cycle towards Paris 2024 will be one of continuity, because it is almost too late to launch major projects”
Likewise, the year leading up to the Games is a year of refinement, not much work. This leaves us just a year and a half as a real period of work, to modify certain programs and organizations. It is very little to make substantial changes. So the cycle towards Paris 2024 will be that of continuity, because it is almost too late today to launch major projects. With such a short time, the slightest loss of efficiency, the slightest late decision will be detrimental to our results. It will be necessary to do a very precise analysis of the results in Tokyo, and to project oneself very quickly and with precision.
We want to identify athletes capable of “performing” in Paris, and see how we can support the supervision of these athletes, their programming, all the stakeholders to make available to them to improve this potential. We are going to do precision craftsmanship, with a much better assessed and better targeted population.
So for you, Tokyo is just a stopover for Paris?
Even if we know that our real evaluation will be the performance of the athletes in Paris [l’ANS a été créée en vue des JO de 2024], it would be absurd to ignore the Games which are opening in Tokyo. All these athletes think only of the 2021 Games, not one today has Paris in mind. We are aligned with their goals, and have done everything to try to help them.