“I want to go to the Games but I know my body won’t let me, it’s actually over! » Pierre-Ambroisse Bosse, world champion in the 800 meters in 2017 and extravagant character in French athletics, announced that he was ending his career on Tuesday, December 26 in The Team. At only 31 years old, hampered by repeated injuries and a slow remission of his hamstring insertion tendon, the French record holder in the discipline had to resign himself: he will not participate in the Paris Olympic Games 2024.
“Deep down, there was always hope, especially since 2022 had gone well, physically I had come back. I knew I could do itexposed the athlete in the sports daily. After the operation, my hamstrings should have gotten better, it had given me a boost of energy, hope, desire, but this recurrence broke this dynamic […] I would have liked to fight until the end for the Games but I can’t do it anymore. »
An endearing and extroverted character, Pierre-Ambroise Bosse reached the heights of his career one evening in August 2017, during the world championships in London. In the din of the Olympic stadium, the Nantes player, just back from injury, accelerated 300 meters from the finish and won, against all odds including his own, the world title ahead of the two favorites – the Pole Adam Kszczot and the Kenyan Kipyegon Bett.
Sixth French athlete to win an individual world title, this title will also mark the beginning of the end for the five-time French champion in the discipline. “The surprise was such that I had the impression of not having understood everything in my body. To tell myself that it wasn’t just the physicalrevealed the Frenchman on Tuesday. The title of world champion satisfied my ego to the point that it was as if athletics was a bit over for me. I no longer needed to prove anything »
A quirky personality
A few months after his coronation, the very lively Pierre-Ambroisse Bosse took part in a brawl in a parking lot in Gujan-Mestras (Gironde). Like his one-night opponent, after leaving a bar, the athlete will be sentenced in 2019. “I will never say that this title was a trap, it’s the most beautiful thing that happened to mehe rewinds in The Team. Even if it also led to things, including this attack. »
As funny as he is fast, Pierre-Ambroise Bosse won the hearts of fans with his quirky and humorous interviews after his races. To the point of making his cat, Rab’s – for “Nothing to jerk off in the plural” – a small phenomenon, just by mentioning it.
At the microphone of Nelson Monfort – whose indescribable phrasing he loved to imitate – after his fourth place at the Rio Olympics in 2016, the athlete gave a dedication to his four-legged sidekick: “I would like to say a word to Rabs too. I know you hoped for better too. You told me to make a medal, I didn’t do it, I’m sorry. This is what you’re going to do, you’re going to get off this couch, you’re going to go to the fridge, open the door, you’re going to open a beer and you’re going to drink it down for me.
Although he liked to entertain the gallery, Pierre-Ambroise Bosse did not make many people laugh among his opponents on the track. “You like my freshness in my statements, so also say that I work”, he insisted in 2016. At 31 years old, and exactly seven months before the opening of the Paris Olympics, “PAB” is putting an end to his career. If he was not one of the favorites in his discipline for an Olympic medal at home, the extravagant athlete risks being missed by the public.