The noose is tightening around the leader of French athletics, Kevin Mayer, forced to abandon the decathlon in San Diego (California) and still not qualified for the Paris Olympic Games. The house is not yet burning for the double Olympic vice-champion and double world champion, suffering from adductor problems. He himself says “not worried”.
Let go of his body again
But Kevin Mayer gave up at the World Championships in Budapest last summer and has not completed a decathlon since his world title in Eugene (Oregon, United States) in July 2022. To achieve the minimums (8,460 points) well within reach of the world record holder (9,126 in 2018), there is still time. Best chance of an Olympic title for French athletics, he has not yet given details on the rest of his program, but to spare himself the anxiety of missing the meeting of a lifetime, he will undoubtedly want to achieve this before the French championships in Angers on June 30, which would be his last chance.
In the anonymity of a small sunny university meeting, at the University of San Diego stadium, the Frenchman was once again let down by his body and said stop during the high jump, the fourth of ten events in the decathlon. “He had more things to lose than to gain. He will heal quickly and start a new decathlon,” assured the boss of the French team Romain Barras, justifying Kevin Mayer’s caution.
“I’m not worried about qualifying”
After a first alert in the morning in the left knee during the warm-up for the length, it was finally discomfort in the adductor major on the right side according to his own diagnosis, contracted after his arrival in the United States on March 5, which prevented passing a bar at height. Kevin Mayer, bandaged on his right thigh, after two unsteady runs, and a meeting with those around him, preferred to say stop. Despite this “fatigue contracture” which he hopes to go away “in ten days”, “Kéké” maintains total confidence for the Paris Games.
“I’m not worried about qualifying. It’s the decathlon, we’re all ‘broken’ (injured) (…) I’ve become my own coach, my own physical trainer, I’m a bit of my own mental trainer too , I have to learn to be more lenient with myself,” he explained to the French media present, with a quickly regained smile. “I can completely see myself in a full Stade de France on the big day, don’t worry. (Qualifying) is the smallest of my problems. The day I’m on the Stade de France track, I can tell you that it will be an enormous ‘plaiz’ (pleasure).”
“On the day of the Games, my legs will be on fire”
In San Diego, in an almost deserted stadium for a university meeting, the double decathlon world champion had correctly attacked his day over 100 m in 10 sec 75, his “best comeback”. He then experienced a first alert during the warm-up for the length, with a slight twist in his left knee due to the loss of spikes located under his shoe.
Frustrated by his mark of 7.07 m, he showed himself brilliant in the shot put, reaching 16.10 m (according to the official mark, despite the judge’s announcement of 16.12 m heard by everyone the audience) with a liberating cry, for his best throw in three years. “I know that I have had the Games in mind for two years, and that on the day of the Games, my legs will be on fire. I can’t ask my brain to do the same for minimums,” he said. wanted to reassure once again.
After giving up on a decathlon in Australia in December and abandoning in San Diego, “Kéké” will have to fight a little longer. Kevin Mayer is used to Olympic qualifications pressed for time as in 2012 (obtained at the beginning of July, a month before the Olympics after three withdrawals) and in 2016 (obtained at the end of May).