2023-05-25 08:04:33
“How does it feel to enter a museum at the age of 26? “So, said like that, it’s a bit creepy!” As usual, Antoine Dupont enters with a little humorous pirouette in his answer to a solemn question. A short meter from him, Frédéric Michalak strokes his hair. Finally, rather that of the double of the captain of the XV of France, best player in the world in 2021, and since Wednesday evening statuefied at the Grévin museum alongside his idol of youth and former opener of the Blues.
The two men, figures of the Toulouse stadium twenty years apart, have joined the gallery of wax representations of the Parisian institution, becoming the fourth and fifth representatives of their sport to be invited there, the first since Sébastien Chabal in February. 2011. The sign of renewed attractiveness and glamor for French rugby in what it hopes will be a historic year with the ambition of winning the first World Cup in its history this fall at home.
“When it was offered to me, I found it strange, admits frankly the scrum half and leader of this generation winner of the Grand Slam 2022. He has since had time to meditate on the relevance or not of his selection. by the Grévin Academy, following a first measurement session in November in the company of the one whose tricolor jersey he wore as a child, then adjustments for the modeling at Marcoussis during the last Six Nations Tournament under the amused eye of some partners.
” It is well done “
Before finally this ceremony of this end of May, animated by a sometimes moved Gérard Holtz – “Honoring champions of your level, it’s something that touches the heart”, sometimes to retrace the history of rugby, sometimes the short story by invoking “Joan of Arc, Fashoda and Mers El Kébir” when discussing the historic success of “Toto” and the Blues in England (10-53) in March. A short hour of introduction, in the presence of Oli, close to Dupont and who came without his brother Bigflo, the families of the interested parties and also rugby personalities like Cyril Baille, Julien Marchand or Yannick Nyanga, before finally seeing the wax statues on stage under the synthetic notes of “Freed from Desire” by Gala.
“It’s super weird, frankly, cowardly Michalak, the future coach of the attack of Racing 92. Seeing his double, it’s disturbing. “His statue was to be dressed as a rugby player, but the ex-opener deemed it more relevant to appear to the Grévin public as the technician he has become. The waxy clone of Dupont wears the Blues jersey and a ball in his hands. “It’s well done, even if it’s hard to say because I don’t see myself by definition”, continues the Toulouse man.
The two men chain the questions and answers, weaving in the background this mutual respect that they carry without ever having played together. The exchange derives from the upcoming World Cup, to the great annoyance of the representatives of the Grévin museum. The two men do the job, Michalak speaks of a generation “who knows better how to manage what is around” than his in 2007, knocked down in the semi-finals by England. Before becoming a protector by putting an end to the mixed zone when a journalist questions Dupont about his ambitions to compete in the 2024 Olympic Games in rugby sevens.
It’s time for the duo to go find their loved ones, who have already gone to the reception to celebrate the event. Their two statues will join the other sportsmen of the Grévin museum, such as judoka Teddy Riner and Clarisse Agbégnénou, footballers Kylian Mbappé and Antoine Griezmann or even ex-biathlete Martin Fourcade. Only world champions. A status that Antoine Dupont dreams of. Much more than being frozen among the other icons of the Grévin museum.
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