How much should French athletics fear these world championships in Budapest (Hungary), which open this Saturday? One year before the Paris Olympics, the pressure will indeed be strong for the France team, which is present in large numbers for these Worlds (from August 19 to 27). With slim hopes of medals but a desire to raise the tone after several failed competitions. For four years, the tiny number of international podiums (three at the 2019 Worlds, one at the 2021 Olympics and the 2022 Worlds, nine at Euro 2022), and even more gold medals (only one with Kevin Mayer at the 2022 Worlds ), has permanently degraded the place of France in the world hierarchy.
And the trend will probably not be reversed on the banks of the Danube. Aware of this established weakness, one year before the Olympic high mass in Paris, the tricolor management still hopes to raise their heads by seeing athletes shine at their best level, even if it is at a distance from the podiums. . Because that hasn’t always been the case in years past. But by the way, what will successful Worlds be measured against?
Kevin Mayer will not take “any risk” one year before the Olympics
“Athletes must at least do their best performance of the season, even their personal best, or improve their place in the world rankings”, fixes the director of high performance at the French Athletics Federation (FFA) Romain Barras, at the helm since the start of 2022. “When you put on the France team jersey, you have a superhero cape on your shoulders, he continues. We must have the ambition to transcend ourselves. It’s not magic, you have to succeed in creating it, in mobilizing it, but it must galvanize. »
The Blues captain Kevin Mayer, crowned decathlon world champion for the second time last summer in Eugene (Oregon), is the main chance for a podium. But the world record holder warned that he would take “no risk” one year before the Olympics. Behind him, few individuals emerge at the top level in the world. Among those who can play the outsiders, we think of hurdlers Sasha Zhoya, Just Kwaou-Mathey, Wilhem Belocian (110m hurdles), Wilfried Happio, vice-champion of Europe in the 400m hurdles, and 800m runners Gabriel Tual, Benjamin Robert and Rénelle Lamote.
“Fifteen athletes can aim for a Top 8”
The French team relies above all on the strength of the collective and the relays, worked on in depth during dedicated gatherings, to shine in Budapest, then in Paris. “If we manage to take a medal here, it would open all the doors for us for next year”, considers the four-time French 100m champion Mouhamadou Fall. After a tight selection at the 2022 Worlds, the FFA has opened the floodgates and is taking 78 athletes (56 individually), i.e. one of the three largest delegations (along with the United States and Germany). “French athletics is doing better as a whole, it is denser. We have about fifteen athletes who may have the ambition to enter the Top 8. We try to think beyond the number of medals, but I expect better than Eugene, ”said Romain Barras, without decide on a quantified objective of medals, as usual.
After having lost en route the multi-medal hurdler Pascal Martinot-Lagarde, currently overtaken by the big French competition in the 110m hurdles, and Renaud Lavillenie, injured, the French team is sorely lacking in pillars. The FFA nevertheless strives to create “cohesion, a blue spirit”, between the courses and the gatherings, in particular the last of a few days at Insep before flying to Hungary. In Budapest, it is also after, namely the qualification for the Olympic Games at home, which is already being played out for the Blues. A finalist place (Top 8) thus offers priority status, according to the selection procedures defined by the FFA, and will open the doors of the Stade de France wide.