The criteria revealed this Wednesday by the French Olympic Committee (CNOSF) to be standard bearer of the French team at the Paris Olympics exclude those who have already been such as Teddy Riner and neophytes to the Games like Kylian Mbappé. For the first time, the four standard bearers of the Olympic and Paralympic teams (one man, one woman for each delegation) will be elected by their peers, announced during a press conference the president of the CNOSF David Lappartient and Marie-Amélie Lefur, president of the Paralympic Committee (CPSF).
“Embody Olympic ethics and values”
The federations will each be able to present a candidate, “which will then be transmitted to the CNOSF”, explained David Lappartient. The vote will be done with all the athletes of the French delegation, “a completely new and unique thing”, said the president of the CNOSF. The public will not be able to participate in this vote. To be able to appear, you will have to have already participated in the Olympic Games, specified the CNOSF, a criterion excluding for example Kylian Mbappé (football), Victor Wembanyama (basketball) or even Antoine Dupont (rugby 7), who have never before participated in Olympics.
It will also be necessary to “embody Olympic ethics and values”, according to David Lappartient, thereby excluding athletes who have been convicted of doping cases for example. Former standard bearers, like judoka Teddy Riner who was at the Rio Olympics in 2016, are also excluded from the list of candidates. “We consider that there is such richness in French sport […] that it is normal that we can have new athletes,” argued the president of the CNOSF.
Announcements already criticized
Barely revealed, these conditions have already been criticized by the former flag bearer at the Tokyo Olympics (2021), judokate Clarisse Agbégnénou. The double Olympic champion, who appears among the popular favorites to occupy this role, took advantage of the publication of a survey placing her in the lead to occupy this position among women, to ironize about her exclusion. “Exceptional! This survey comes at the right time,” she wrote on her the standard bearers.”
Exceptional! This survey is timely
There are the French and the figures who express a certain will and on the other side people work behind the scenes to impose discriminating conditions to design the flag bearers https://t.co/1wbrt0AT9F
— AGBÉGNÉNOU Clarisse (@Gnougnou25) March 12, 2024
“This gave rise to debates within the athletes’ commission […] with the presidents of federations”, admitted David Lappartient. “It is a decision taken jointly by all the stakeholders”, he assured. The names of the four elected officials should be revealed in mid-July.