It is therefore the judokate Clarisse Agbegnenou, Olympic vice-champion in Rio in 2016, and the gymnast Samir Ait Said who will be the tricolor flag bearers during the Olympic Games in Tokyo, from July 23 to August 9.
Sandrine Martinet, also a judokate, and Stéphane Houdet will parade at the head of the French delegation during the Paralympic Games, which will begin on August 24 in Japan.
If the latter were elected by the general public, Clarisse Agbegnenou and Samir Ait Said were appointed by a college of athletes who will be present in Tokyo.
For the first time since handball player Jackson Richardson in 2004, the flag bearer will not be an Olympic champion (Florent Manaudou, Renaud Lavillenie and Charline Picon were nevertheless candidates) but athletes chosen for their record (Clarisse Agbegnenou is five times world champion ; Samir Ait Said world bronze medalist in 2019) but also for the values they embody. At 28, Clarisse Agbegnenou is the fashionable sportswoman, the one who takes a stand for social issues, the one who cries when the Games are postponed from 2020 to 2021, the one who embodies this winning France.
Samir Ait Said has not (yet) trusted many international podiums. The images of his double tibia - fibula fracture in the middle of the Olympic final while he was in contention for a medal, moved the French. We thought he was lost for gymnastics, he clung, as Clarisse Agbegnenou clung to life, while at her birth, doctors thought she was doomed because of a serious kidney malformation. It was at Insep that Samir was rebuilt. Months of convalescence, in the hope of achieving his Olympic dream. In Tokyo, Samir's story will pick up where it left off in Rio. His dad, who died in 2019, will not be present but before his departure, Samir promised him that he would resonate the notes of the Marseillaise.