2023-08-29 18:57:19
The Paris Olympics are less than a year away (from July 26 to August 11, 2024) and the state of French athletics is worrying. Tuesday, August 29, officials of the French Athletics Federation were invited to the Ministry of Sports for a discussion which, according to Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, was ” tonic “.
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At the heart of the turmoil: the results of the Blues at the last World Athletics Championships in Budapest. After ten days of competition, the French avoided zero points on the wire by winning a silver medal on Sunday thanks to the men’s 4 × 400 relay.
“We had a dense, intense, invigorating meeting, at random to debrief these Worlds and identify together all the avenues of optimization that we can align to improve performance with a view to the Olympic and Paralympic Games”, indicated the Minister at the end of this meeting, where the National Sports Agency (ANS) was also represented by its general manager of high performance, Claude Onesta. Amélie Oudéa-Castéra added that “debriefs” will be made by “all the specialty managers, then a cold debriefing with the different athletes” for a gathering in Saint-Malo (Ille-et-Vilaine), at the end of October.
“Specific goals”
Director of high performance at the French Athletics Federation (FFA), Romain Barras considered that the meeting had been “very “challenging”, with specific objectives, with the aim of all succeeding together”. The former decathlete, however, explained on Sunday to Monde what “for Paris, it’s a bit late”. The latter added: “We won’t revolutionize things in a few months, you have to be pragmatic and honest. We will have to hope for the exploits of the French athletes. »
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During Tuesday’s meeting, the president of the FFA, André Giraud, considered that“There is no problem between the ANS and the federation. We have never put so many resources into enabling our athletes to succeed”. Words echoing those of the minister: “Everyone knows that there were tensions between the ANS and the FFA after [les Jeux de] Tokyo, this is no longer the case today. » Amélie Oudéa-Castéra nevertheless agreed that France was not going to become “overnight an immense nation of athletics, [ce qu’elle] has never been in the past”.
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