In front of his computer screen at 4 am rather than sitting in the stands.
This Olympic day of July 25, 2021, Florent Urani imagined it otherwise.
When judoka Kilian Le Blouch enters the under 66 kg category, he will be at home, not in Tokyo.
“Him, I know he has all the mental resources to win a medal, even without encouragement from those close to him.
But me, I really thought to live my first Olympics ”, blows this former high level judoka.
Retired since 2018, Florent had become a close friend of Kylian Le Blouch after joining his structure (Flam 91 in Massy, in Essonne) in 2018 and becoming his trainer.
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In total, around 900,000 foreign spectators like him had planned to attend the Tokyo Olympics from July 23 to August 8, 2021.
Among them, many French people came to support their child, a sister, a brother, a childhood friend or a former pupil.
The threat had been hovering for weeks, it was confirmed on March 20 by the Japanese authorities and the Olympic authorities.
The fortnight will take place with a 100% local audience, and again if the health situation linked to Covid-19 allows it.
“We will continue to debrief the fights on WhatsApp, I'm not worried.
But hey, it's obviously not the same for me, ”confesses Florent, annoyed.
"We started planning from 2018"
In his misfortune, the latter had not yet bought his plane tickets or his tickets for the dojo.
Chloé Lebrun had completed this journey with her husband for a year and a half.
300 euros each to attend the qualifications in the morning, 800 euros to cross the globe ... and now, this sorrow of not accompanying his brother, Axel Clerget (34 years old, -90 kg), for his first and very likely last participation in the Olympics .
“We believed in 2012 in London, but he ultimately failed in qualifying.
But there with his 3rd place at the 2018 Worlds, we started to foresee things very early, ”she blows.
The daycare for her two children with the in-laws was even validated.
“It was the hardest part for my father.
He believed in it to the end.
And Axel was very keen on it.
That we are there, it allows him to change his mind before the tournament and to have his bearings.
He always dreamed of doing the Olympic Games with his family even more in Japan, the country of judo.
"She now waits" a little worried "for news from her tour operator for plane tickets as well as from the company Eventeam, which manages the ticket office for access to sporting events.
According to our information, this company, which can also take care of accommodation and transport, is awaiting April and the instructions of the organizing committee to say more about the terms of reimbursement.
"I still have not digested"
The family of Marie Oteiza, world number one in modern pentathlon in 2019, and European champion in 2018, had saved for a long time to stall this trip.
Since the sentence, her mother, her partner and her sister Eva have received a credit of 500 euros to be used in the year from their hotel, but they have lost 400 euros on the 1000 of their tickets. return plane.
“She had prepared us for some time, but we were still really disappointed,” says Eva.
We don't often have the opportunity to see her at major competitions abroad.
My mother works, I am studying.
It would have been just amazing to see her at the Olympics.
"
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This sadness seems even deeper in Sandrine.
"I still have not digested", indicates the mother of the twin sisters Charlotte and Laura Tremble, hopes of the tricolor synchronized swimming which, except cataclysm, will be part in Tokyo.
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This fortnight in Tokyo had been guiding her for at least two years.
She, the dad, but also the two grandmothers, the former childhood coach and the boyfriend of one of the two teenage girls.
All had planned to leave.
The Olympics represented a culmination for Sandrine, present in all the major competitions of her daughters, even if it means devoting several years to it on all her days off.
Sandrine Tremble, with her two daughters, their father and the boyfriend of one of the two teenage girls.
DR
"It's the competition of their lives, and we won't be there," laments this trainer-optician. We could feel it, we hoped that two relatives per athlete would be allowed in a kind of family bubble. Ten days after the announcement of the sentence, Sandrine still refuses to project herself on D-Day. Speaking and seeing her daughters before the big jump, she knows that there will always be the right through interposed screens. But how to fill these glances which they exchanged until the last seconds from the steps of the swimming pool?
