The Olympic and Paralympic committees unveiled this Wednesday at the CNOSF headquarters the process for designating the flag bearers for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Broadly speaking, there will be one woman and one man for each delegation, elected directly by their peers. selected for the Games by your electronics in mid-July (around 560 Olympic and 260 Paralympic athletes).
Each federation will have the possibility of presenting a representative who must meet certain eligibility criteria, in particular having already been an Olympian and not having already carried the flag in a previous edition.
Which, as we announced to you on Tuesday, effectively excludes Teddy Riner, Clarisse Agbégnénou, Kylian Mbappé and Victor Wembanyama, the headliners best known to the general public.
Another criterion has been debated and must still be refined before being presented to the federations next Monday.
This is the one relating to ethics.
“It is fundamental that the chosen athletes convey certain values,” explains David Lappartient, the president of the CNOSF, emphasizing the mission of representativeness and incarnation of the lucky ones.
“We must not start with a controversy over the values conveyed”
It remains to be seen where to place the probity cursor, or even judicial virginity.
“We established the principle, that of respect for the Olympic values,” continues Lappartient.
Afterwards, the devil is always in the details and you have to know where you are setting the bar.
The precise technical guide is currently being assessed to find out which criminal record extract we are talking about, sporting sanctions or not, etc.
There are legal experts there, because we still have to objectify the decisions we are going to make.
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Among the athletes expected to carry the flag, pole vaulter Renaud Lavillenie and volleyball player Earvin Ngapeth were convicted for matters unrelated to their discipline.
Enough to spark debate on their legitimacy or not.
The handball player Nikola Karabatic, for his part, drags an old betting affair like a ball.
Which already seems prohibitive, as with cases of doping which touch the very essence of sport.
“We want to embody values,” insists Lappartient without naming the triple Olympic champion.
We must not start with a controversy over the values conveyed by this or that.
Generally speaking, we have never personalized the debates even if this has consequences for renowned athletes..."