Jean-Claude Perrin, with AFP / Photo credits: SVEN HOPPE / DPA / dpa Picture-Alliance via AFP
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9:35 a.m., August 23, 2023
Stop or again? World title holder and rare hope of a French medal, Kevin Mayer is uncertain for the decathlon which begins Friday at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, overtaken by a painful Achilles tendon. “When my chances of completing a decathlon are over 50%, I don’t talk about it (possible physical problems, editor’s note), when they are below, I talk about it”, assesses Mayer (31 years old) in front of the press meeting Tuesday morning at the French Institute in Budapest, on the banks of the Danube.
“It’s not an admission of abandonment”, however insists the double decathlon world champion (2017 and 2022). I’m doing whatever it takes to get to the start of the 100m (the first event), but at any time it can stop.”
“The priority is Paris”
As he had already very clearly displayed before arriving in the Hungarian capital, “the priority is Paris” and the 2024 Olympics next summer. “The state of mind is to do nothing to make it worse, to make it expensive vis-à-vis Paris, he confirms. As long as it doesn’t cost me for Paris, I want to give me a chance.”
“I have the experience of a big injury in Doha (left Achilles tendon crack and tear at the 2019 Worlds in October), where I pushed too much. It took me until February to start running again . I never want it to happen to me before Paris”, he insists. It is that the double Olympic silver medalist (2016 and 2021) is still chasing gold at the Olympics.
A hamstring tear in June
Mayer, who had only participated in three events (weight, discus and pole) at the French Championships at the end of July in Albi – where he revealed that he had suffered a hamstring tear in June – was caught by his left Achilles tendon two weeks ago. “During a 400m training session, in the bend I felt my Achilles tendon hurt, and when cold it was a disaster”, he says.
“Since then, it’s been a race for rehabilitation, I give everything like a madman, it’s a huge challenge” but “it’s not over”, assures Mayer. “I have a lot of tools to make sure it’s not the same talk on Friday morning. I take it hour by hour and do whatever it takes to make it happen.”
A potential blow for the tricolor clan
A withdrawal or abandonment of its double world champion would be a serious blow for the France team, since it represents the best chance of a medal. “If he ever had to doubt, stop!” exclaims Jean-Claude Perrin, former athletics coach on Europe 1. “The tendon, behind the hamstring injury, is usually the number 1 chain. injures his thigh, after which we are unbalanced on the lower limb, and it is difficult to recover from the tendon”, he analyzes. “He’s right if he stops, it’s caution, especially for his health for next year,” adds the ex-coach.
A year ago in Eugene (Oregon, United States), the world gold won by Mayer on the last day of competition narrowly avoided the Blues an embarrassing zero point. “Even if I do the first day, the hardest part will be the 400m (the last event of the 1st day, editor’s note) and waking up on Saturday morning after, warns the French multi-medalist. Because in the turn, it is my left foot which is inside, it hits where it really hurts.”
His last completed decathlon dates back precisely to the Eugene Worlds in July 2022, in a season long disrupted, already, by painful tendons, among other things. Three weeks later at the European Championships in Munich (Germany), he had given up in the first round. If he were to not complete the Budapest decathlon, or not to compete at all, Mayer would have no choice but to schedule another one to qualify for the 2024 Olympics.