Jean-Michel Blanquer, the Minister of National Education, Youth and Sports, gave a nice gift to French athletes by announcing that the bonus promised to future Olympic champions in Tokyo will be raised by 15,000 euros or 65,000 euros for a gold medal, 25,000 for the silver and 15,000 for the bronze (against respectively 50,000, 20,000 and 13,000 in Rio)… Enough to boost the Blues, now less than 100 days before the Olympic Games.
On the other hand, there is no question for Jean-Michel Blanquer to influence the names of the two athletes who, during the opening ceremony on July 23, will march at the head of the French delegation.
As proposed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), France has decided that, for the first time, a woman and a man will share the role of flag bearer.
It is up to the sports ambassadors (two per Federation) to vote at the end of June, when everyone will have their ticket for Tokyo in their pocket.
For the first time, 4 athletes will carry our flag 🇫🇷 in Tokyo, discover the candidates.
#OneSonEquipe pic.twitter.com/OEsD2p3gIK
- France Team (@EquipeFRA) April 14, 2021
Seven women and five men are candidates.
Charline Picon (sailing), Clarisse Agbegnenou (judo), Mélina Robert-Michon (athletics), Sandrine Gruda (basketball), Kristina Mladenovic (tennis), Johanne Defay (surf), Maïva Hamadouche (boxing), Florent Manaudou (swimming), Renaud Lavillenie (athletics), Astier Nicolas (horse riding), Maxime Beaumont (canoe-kayak) and Samir Aït Saïd (gymnastics).
The prize list, the charisma, the sympathy ...
Discobolist Mélina Robert-Michon, silver medalist in Rio, remembers her first fashion show in 2000. “I have childish eyes when I see us following David Douillet, says the one who will participate in his sixth Olympics this summer. .
He represented for me something inaccessible, I would never have imagined being a candidate for this role one day.
"
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"I have already done the Games twice and I never participated in the opening ceremony because I wanted to focus on the athlete and I have always missed it", points the Olympic swimming champion Florent Manaudou.
The pole vaulter, gold medalist at the 2012 Olympics, Renaud Lavillenie, believes that it would be for him "a reward to lead the French team towards success and to prepare it for the Paris Olympics in 2024".
He speaks of “sharing”, Mélina Robert-Michon highlights her “perseverance”, Clarisse Agbegnenou, vice Olympic judo champion, her “personality”.
The only female gold medalist candidate, Charline Picon says she has thought long and hard.
“Because I am above all an ambassador for sailing, on my own I was perhaps not made for this role,” she comments.
But, together, this important role will be easier to assume.
Florent Manaudou, for his part, believes that a "standard bearer must unify, and have already experienced moments of glory as well as of doubt".
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The forecasts are already going well, but very smart who will find the winning duo.
Traditionally, the role of flag bearer has been assigned to an Olympic champion, although Jackson Richardson, chosen in 2004, was "only" a bronze medalist.
However, as in 2016 (for Teddy Riner), it is the athletes who vote and no longer the leaders who designate.
According to what criteria?
The track record, the charisma, the sympathy, the benevolence, the perseverance?
They alone know it, and they alone decide.