Barring an improbable reversal of the situation, Denis Gargaud, 2016 Olympic canoe slalom champion in Rio, will not participate in the 2024 Paris Olympics. “I’m not disappointed, I’m not angry, I just don’t understand this decision,” he told AFP after being deprived of the France team in 2023 on Wednesday by the French Canoe-Kayak Federation (FFCK).
“It is a mistake for French sport to deviate from the Olympic route so early. I could have put pressure on the other members of the French team “until the 2024 Olympics, continued the 35-year-old ceist, world champion in single-seater canoeing in 2011 and European champion in 2021.
“I am essential”
The FFCK has unveiled the composition of the France 2023 team, comprising eleven names, including three in men’s canoeing (Lucas Roisin, Nicolas Gestin and Jules Bernardet) at the end of “the national identification time organized in Vaires-sur- Marne last week, the final stage of the selection process for the France team, ”she explained in advance in her press release.
Gargaud did not, by his own admission, approach these selections “in the best conditions” due to tendonitis in one shoulder. “If I was a coach, I wouldn’t have selected myself first based on my times, but I would have selected myself second or third (position) based on my past and present records. I am 4th in the world, it has been more than ten years since I left the top level in the world, he insisted. I am unavoidable, ”said the Marseillais again.
Gargaud had already been deprived of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, ousted at the end of the last competition in a traditionally ruthless selection process with only one boat per country and per event.
“We are in a very dense category, with five-six boats for only three places, recalled Rémi Gaspard, performance director of the FFCK. It’s understandable that Denis doesn’t understand the decision, but it’s an assumed choice. We took into account a lot of data and elements, in particular the ability to perform in major events. »
The 11 selected are set to line up at the European Games in Krakow, Poland (June 21-July 2), and the 2023 World Championships in Lee Valley, Britain (September 19-24). At the end of the 2023 Worlds and the World Cup final on the site of the 2024 Olympic Games in Vaires-sur-Marne (October 5-8), this selection will be reduced to one name per discipline.