The year 2023 will clearly be quickly forgotten for Renaud Lavillenie. Still injured, the essential star of French athletics must indeed withdraw from the World Championships in Budapest, which will take place from August 19 to 27. “The challenge of wanting to participate in the world championships despite months of stopping will unfortunately not be successful, regrets this Monday the pole vaulter on his social networks. My body does not allow me to jump in Budapest in good conditions with the return of a pain in the tendon of the hamstrings. I therefore choose to forfeit to my greatest regret. »
The blow is tough for the 2012 Olympic champion, who therefore had to skip the indoor season for the first time in his career to (already) treat his hamstrings. Lavillenie then had a difficult summer with the best jump of 5.61m in seven competitions. For example, he failed to cross a single bar on July 30 at the French championships in Albi, where Thibaut Collet was crowned.
“Recharging the physical and mental batteries”
At 36 (37 in September), more or less serious injuries have been accumulating for several years for the former world record holder (6.16 m in 2014), who still hopes to shine at the Paris Olympics in 2024. “I will take the time to recharge the physical and mental batteries in order to prepare for 2024 and its deadlines in the best conditions,” he promises on Monday.
Although far from his past glory, he can rely on his experience at the Worlds in Eugene (Oregon) in July 2022. Little expected after an average season, he had released his best competition in the United States to take 5th place. , and he even came close to the podium. In the winter of 2021, he had already come a long way to pass the legendary 6-meter bar several times. But Renaud Lavillenie will miss the big international summer athletics competition for the first time since the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Thibaut Collet and Baptiste Thiery selected in the pole vault for Budapest
In the meantime, he has accumulated 18 international medals, including two at the Olympic Games (winner in 2012 in London, then silver in 2016 in Rio) and five at the Outdoor Worlds (silver in 2013, bronze in 2009, 2011, 2015 and 2017), the last being bronze at Euro 2018 in Berlin. He has since remained on several failures (8th at the Olympic Games in 2021, 7th at the Euro in 2022). “Mentally, I’m not ready to hang up,” warned this enthusiast in June. This one must now follow by far the exploits of the Swede Armand Duplantis, who hovers above the competition.
“I have a longer and more demanding job than usual, but I still do what I love, so the constraints are less,” he added in June. The blow is also hard for a young French team in need of leaders, who must already leave at home the hurdler Pascal Martinot-Lagarde and his 12 international medals. In the men’s pole vault, the Blues have so far selected Thibaut Collet and Baptiste Thiery.