2023-08-19 06:14:00
With the world championships in athletics which open on August 19 in Hungary, the Blues hope to gain experience one year before the Olympic meeting, where they hope to win three medals.
The 19th World Athletics Championships open this Saturday August 19 in Budapest for eight days, in a context of crisis for the tricolors. No more medals galore ten years ago, when France returned from international competitions with a double figure on the medal table.
Last year, only one charm was brought back from the world championships in Eugene (USA): Kevin Mayer’s gold in the decathlon. At the last Olympic Games in Tokyo, in 2021, it was still thanks to the blond athlete with a stature physique that France had avoided the shame of zero. At the continental level, things are going a little better: nine charms won at the European Championships in Munich in 2022. In Barcelona in 2010, still at the European Championships, the Blues had 18 in their suitcases…
“Better Profitability”
Romain Barras, now director of performance at the French Athletics Federation (FFA), won gold in the decathlon in 2010. From now on, it is up to him to bear the daunting task of reversing the trend and to help the Blues find their way back to success. “When I arrived at this position, officially in January 2022 even if I had started an interim in October 2021, we were coming out of the Tokyo Olympics which had been deemed disappointing by our supervisory bodies, in particular the National Sports Agency” , says the former decathlete.
The copy must be reviewed: “I have started to meet with those responsible for the sectors, including young people. We sat around a table to implement the new strategy. The Agency asked us for better profitability: we had a medal for 61 qualified for the championships, we had to increase the number of medals and also the requirements to go to the French team”, explains Barras, under pressure a year from the Games of Paris. “Obviously, this is the deadline that everyone thinks about, he agrees. You have understood that in two years, it’s complicated to change everything. But we have started the change: the athletes and the coaches are responding rather well.
“Scientific monitoring” for athletes
If the lack of medals, especially from 2019, is partly due to a generational low, it is also explained by a general increase in performance. “Countries like Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium have become very competitive. At the last European championships, Albania, a country which does not have a strong tradition in athletics, won a gold medal”, analyzes the director of performance of the FFA. He recognizes that “at one time, we thought more about reaping than sowing, and moreover it worked well with Renaud Lavillenie, Mélina Robert-Michon, Kevin Mayer. But now we have to get back to work and improve. This is why we founded a cell dedicated to performance guided by Bertrand Valcin.
And to shell: “We have a nutritionist, a specialist in mental preparation, a physiologist. A top athlete who wants help now knows which door to knock on.” He also describes the establishment of a “scientific follow-up” provided to athletes classified by “priority circles”: “Circle 1 is made up of medal winners, 5 includes young promises. We wanted to rebuild the “French team spirit”, the one that reigned precisely in Barcelona 2010. Emulation can win medals, and the bad atmosphere within the team can downright cause them to lose.
A goal of three medals at Paris 2024
Jean-Pierre Guyomarc’h, who with Eric Srecki closely follows athletics at the ANS, testifies to his confidence in Romain Barras. “We have observed the change of course and we appreciate his work: we are there to accompany, discuss, guide and not to do the work of others”, explains the former pentathlete. No quantified objective has been set for the championships which open in Hungary, unlike Paris 2024, where the ANS hopes for three medals in athletics.
“I don’t stop at an accounting logic. To train an Olympic athlete, it takes between six and eight years. We already have very good youngsters, as we saw at the European U23 championships in Finland [neuf médailles, trois titres]. But going to the Paris Olympics for the medal is something other than winning one at the European U23 Championships, ”admits Romain Barras. He thinks he is “on the right road for the future”, with his sights set on the Games in Los Angeles in 2028 and those in Brisbane in 2032: “My mission lasts until next year: if I am not renewed , I will still leave the clean sheets at home.”
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