There is no longer any question of continuing to savor the Olympic gold. Less than a month after their title, won in Tokyo, it is already time to return to the net for the French volleyball players. With a European Championship on the menu. With also, and above all, this new world status to be revealed, from Friday September 3 in Tallinn (Estonia), on the occasion of the first match of this competition against Slovakia (7 p.m.).
“Everyone is going to want to beat the Olympic champions. “ The Blues know what to expect: at each of their outings, they will now have to don the habit of favorites. This is a hell of a change for players whose results, in recent years, have often lacked consistency and who have offered themselves an Olympic gold medal in which hardly anyone believed, at the end of an improbable course. .
It is, also and above all, a sacred challenge for the new “playing master” of this France team, the Brazilian Bernardo Rocha de Rezende, who has replaced Laurent Tillie as coach. Because, between the announcement of his appointment, in mid-April, and his taking office, a few days after the final won on August 7 in Tokyo, the one who is better known under the name of Bernardinho saw the accomplishment of a part of the mission to which he is committed: winning a first Olympic title.
“For him, it becomes a little more complicated”, agrees Axelle Guiguet, the national technical director of the French Volleyball Federation. “Getting a team back is at least as hard as winning it for the first time”, confirms Claude Onesta, double Olympic champion and triple world champion with the French handball team, which took over after the world title of the Blues in 2001.
However, Axelle Guiget like Claude Onesta, also responsible for high performance at the National Sports Agency, recall that the expectations of the Brazilian “Have not changed” after Tokyo: “The goal remains the same, namely the gold medal [aux JO] in Paris in 2024. ”
“The important thing is consistency”
The interested party confides that“After the victory at the Olympics”, he has, at first, “Nevertheless asked Laurent [Tillie] if he wanted to stay and continue the story to Paris ”. Now in charge, he seems to be satisfied with this challenge: “The big victories are the cemeteries of small teams. And France has proven that it is a great team ”, he assures.
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