At 32, Jenia Grebennikov no longer has much to prove.
Best player in the world in his very specific position, libero – the one who does not have the same jersey as the others and who can only receive, not attack – the Saint Petersburg player has for several years now been one of the captains of this French volleyball team which continues to shine.
Last summer at the Tokyo Games by winning the first gold medal in its history.
But again recently by winning the League of Nations for the third time, in which he did not take part to take advantage of the birth of his second child and recover physically.
Nevertheless, before flying to Ljubljana to compete in the 2022 World Championships, the native of Rennes, with his eternal smile,
The Olympic title in Tokyo
"I have a lot of memories of it.
I did not review the matches, just extracts.
But I remember that at the time, just after the final, I was not particularly moved.
I was happier, joyful, I just didn't realize what I was going through.
On the other hand, today, when I see the images again, that's when I'm very moved because it was still an incredible moment.
Has this changed my life?
My goals have become a little different (“he doesn't have any now,” jokes Kévin Tillie).
No Still not.
But it's true that for one or two months, I said to myself that I was an Olympic champion and that upsets me a bit.
It's not that you're telling it to yourself, but I really didn't expect it... And there, honestly, I can't wait,
it is to be in 2024 for the Games in Paris.
I want to relive the Olympics.
There, you are talking to me about doing a European Championship, I'm not going to tell you that I don't care, but it has nothing to do with the Games.
Certainly because we won and that magnified everything.”
Read alsoOlympic Games: volleyball, the gold of discovery
The failure at the Euro
“I think it was the right time to change coaches, especially with the arrival of Bernardinho who has won everything, who has a lot of discipline and who gives a lot of rhythm to training.
When he spoke, there was an incredible silence.
This allowed to give a new impetus to the team, at a given time – after an Olympic title – when a boost was necessary so that we do not fall asleep on our laurels.
Unfortunately, on this Euro, we missed the mark on the round of 16, where we came across a Czech team in a very big day.
And on our side, we made a match… It was simply not our day.
This match, we must keep it in mind so that it does not happen to us again.
It's volleyball, it's sport, it's like that.
Bernardinho's surprise departure
“He had incredible charisma, he even tried to speak French and everyone drank in his words.
Living these two weeks with him for the Euro was great.
Afterwards, I was very disappointed to learn that he was leaving.
He had set milestones and we knew he wanted to continue the adventure until 2024 to win a medal at home.
Suddenly, as the current had passed, we were able to imagine many things.
Not to mention that we wanted to catch up with this elimination in the 8th of the Euro.
We wanted to show him that he was not the problem but that it was us, that we had messed up.
Well, we hadn't messed around but simply had a day without.
He had everything planned for this summer,
which explains why we had this friendly match against Brazil which he had to schedule himself.
Everything was in place to get us on a royal road for Paris 2024 and that hit us hard."
Read alsoVolleyball: two years from the Paris Games, Bernardinho resigns from the post of coach of the Blues
The arrival of Andrea Giani
“It is necessarily different because Bernardinho had an encyclopedia side of volleyball.
He had won everything with the Brazilian men's team, but also the women's.
For Andrea, it's not easy to go after Laurent (Tillie) and Bernardinho, even if he only did two weeks.
Now I think the Federation made the right choice for our group.
Personally, I knew him before because he was my club coach (in Modena during the 2020-21 season).
For our strikers, it can help them because he's a former striker.
And before being a great coach, Giani was an incredible player.
He is very open, he lets us live, he guides us.
I have the feeling that he is finishing what Laurent started.
He is very charismatic and physically, he imposes by his posture and by what
he did as a player.
With him, there is a real exchange.
We have the impression that even if he has not been there for a long time, he immediately understood us.
And that makes us want to give him back on the pitch even more.”
Nations League title
“It was good preparation for this World Championship.
For me, this competition is ideal for discovering new talent.
This is where you have to start young players so that they get tough.
It's a great time to try things out and obviously it's even better to do it while winning.
Especially since we are very competitive and there is money at stake for our Federation, which is very important.
Now, in the final, the United States did not have their sharp number 1 and we are not going to lie to each other, the VNL, an average person does not know what it is.
You tell him that France is world champion in volleyball, that speaks to him.
But if you tell her that France won the VNL, she will ask you: “VN what?”
Now,
The World Championship in Slovenia and Poland
“We have to defend our status because now everyone wants to bring us down.
An additional World Championship is so hard, the level is so homogeneous with one or two exceptions.
Today, we are playing very well, but in tough matches, against very strong teams too, you never know.
We have to erase that, that even when we're not having a good day, we have to manage to win anyway.
We have to work on that with a view to Paris 2024. It would be great from this perspective to win this World Championship, but the formula is complicated with the statuses of Slovenia and Poland.
So my state of mind is first of all to play well in this competition, to put things in place, to progress and if there is to be a victory at the end,
Tired after such a year?
“I don't feel any weariness in the group.
Personally, I was able to take a breather since I was not in the League of Nations.
It did me good.
I needed it.
My wife and my family needed it too, because I have two children now and I can't always be away.
There comes a time when I have to know how to say stop.
But there, physically and mentally, I feel really good, whereas if I had done the whole League of Nations today, I know full well that I would not have been in the same state, in the same dispositions.
There, I would have said to you (he looks jaded): "Yes, then the World Championship, we'll see".
But cutting allowed me to enjoy my family and let my body rest, regenerate.
I was also able to watch how the
away team, which made me want to come back.
Afterwards, I can't speak on behalf of others, but I don't feel like there's any weariness."