Difficult to prove him wrong.
At the end of the Tokyo Olympics, IOC President Thomas Bach expressed his "concern" with regard to the disappointing results of the Blues three years from the Paris Olympics.
A feeling reported in an internal document of the National Sports Agency (ANS).
As a reminder, France finished 8th in the medal table of the Tokyo Olympics with 33 awards, far enough from the goal of 40 medals, a disappointing record, less good than in Rio four years earlier where it had finished 7th with 42 medals.
During the reception of the medal-winning sportsmen from Tokyo at the Elysee Palace on September 13, Emmanuel Macron did not spare his audience by urging the sportsmen to “do much more” for the next Olympic Games in Paris in 2024. “The results n 'is not quite what we expected ", had launched Emmanuel Macron going so far as to set the goal of joining the world top 5," the success of the Games will be the success of our athletes because it works like that ".
"Successful Games when the athletes of the host country achieve great performances"
Obviously, this point of view is shared by the head of the IOC, Thomas Bach, who took the liberty of talking about it in Tokyo with the French delegation. "In Tokyo, Thomas Bach expressed the concern of the IOC regarding the results of the French delegation in the perspective of Paris", we can read in preparatory documents for the board of directors of the ANS which is to be held. hold Thursday. "He affirms that the Games are successful when the athletes of the host country achieve great performances," the text continues.
Tuesday, the manager of the high performance of the ANS, Claude Onesta, presented measures which must, according to him, allow to meet the objective set by the President of the Republic. These measures are broken down into three areas: better support for athletes, better remuneration for coaches and reinforced supervision for federations in difficulty, which can no longer be in "real autonomy".
He did not hide his own "concern" about twenty federations including that of swimming and athletics.
When this last sport “represents almost 150 potential medals and we made one (Kevin Mayer, silver medal, editor's note), if that's not a concern, I don't know what you want to call it.
It's not about accusing anyone at the moment.
I think we have to rethink the system and not try to find some kind of miraculous character who would solve all the problems.
It's a bundle of actors (...), it's complicated, ”he said.
Read alsoOJ 2024: 80 medals or a top 5 in three years, can France really believe it?
Claude Onesta did not deny the criticisms formulated by Teddy Riner after Tokyo either.
The judoka had denounced in mid-September several years of investment delay to meet the goal of 90 or even 80 medals in Paris.
“I heard David Douillet explain everywhere that all this was useless, that the agency was doing anything.
We must not forget that in 2011, he was the Minister of Sports.
If he had done it in good time, maybe today we would be in a better position to succeed.
"
