2023-11-28 23:52:57
It’s a unique moment. Incomparable and magical. The opening ceremony of the Olympic Games is a moment of sharing, of fraternity where the great star, the adored champion, rubs shoulders with the amateur and anonymous athlete. Everyone talks about it and wants to be there.
That of the Paris Games – on July 26 -, with a parade on the Seine, promises to be grandiose. But eight months before the event, the question of the presence of basketball players – among the most popular athletes of the Games since the Dream Team of Jordan, “Magic” Johnson or Larry Bird in 1992 – remains more unresolved than ever.
Will we see the “alien” of the Blues Victor Wembanyama or the American virtuosos at the party among the other delegations? The question needs to be asked. “No decision has been made,” indicates a source close to the matter. “It’s going to be complicated,” warns Boris Diaw, general manager of the Blues, present this Tuesday in Tignes (Savoie) as part of the traditional Stars of Sport meeting.
Forced to go to the Pierre-Mauroy stadium in Villeneuve-d’Ascq (North) during the first week to play the preliminary phases of the tournament, the artists of the big orange ball are in fact not certain of being able to be present at Paris for the ceremony even if the entry of the Blues into the competition should not take place on the first day of the tournament, namely July 27.
“We are still waiting”
“There is already the transportation, leaving Lille to be able to arrive, taking buses, leaving the boat, taking the bus again with the end of the ceremony which is very late,” explains Diaw. But even if it is a really tiring program, it will be the players’ choice to participate or not. Honestly, as a player, personally, I don’t think I would have done it. But we have to see, we are not yet sure of how it will be organized, we are still waiting. »
The French men’s and women’s teams are expected to arrive in the capital of Hauts-de-France on July 24. If the Bleues de Marine Johannès should stay in the Lille Olympic village to fully enjoy the experience of the Games, Vincent Collet’s players will stay in a hotel due to the number of necessary accreditations. During the second week, back in Paris, this time they should stay at Insep.
“A super important moment” for Dumerc
“We discussed it with the athletes, we asked the question clearly, and we will ask them again by really presenting all the ins and outs of what is going to happen,” indicates Céline Dumerc, general manager of the Bleues, also present at the Étoiles du Sport. Of course, they want to go, but we’ll see what they say when we explain to them that they will have to leave in the morning to return at 3 a.m. (the next day). But I think that the support of the staff will go in the direction of what the athletes want, because it is a very important, enriching moment which will perhaps tire them physically but which will give them strength. I think we shouldn’t deprive ourselves of that. »
The former captain of the Bleues, retired from the courts since the spring, remembers having “put in a bit of pressure” to participate in the ceremony in London in 2012. “We played the next day, at 1 p.m. or 3 p.m., I don’t know anymore, recalls the one who lit up the women’s tournament. The coach wasn’t necessarily super hot. We had to respect a small curfew. But, sincerely, the fatigue that you may have accumulated at that moment, in fact you forgot it because you have stars in your eyes. Honestly, it was magical, we were like children. » And that brought them luck because the French women left London with the silver medal around their necks.
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