Appointed captain of a team of 33 athletes sponsored by the equipment manufacturer Decathlon, Teddy Riner has set himself the mission of creating "
a group spirit
" among the athletes and bringing them to the Paris Olympics in 2024 "
in the best conditions .
.
I will give them advice, ways to manage the pressure, something that I knew very early
, "said the three-time Olympic judo champion Tuesday evening to the press, on the sidelines of the presentation of "
Team Decathlon
" at Paris.
"
I don't want the team to be attacked by stress.
I want us to be in the best conditions to succeed in these Games and not miss out.
I know that the pressure will come but you have to know how to manage it, you have to anticipate it now.
When you arrive with a team like that, it creates cohesion.
You create a group spirit and behind it, the results are not the same
,” he added.
This role of captain, however, did not come innately to Teddy Riner.
“
I was always the youngest, because of my precocity.
I started to understand that people wanted to talk when I saw that other athletes and some coaches were talking to me
,” he explained.
“
Today, I do it naturally.
But at the start, when I was in the France team when I was very young, I was embarrassed to give advice because it's not my role.
Today I have the shoulders for it, but at the start, it wasn't easy.
The Paris SG judoka was named captain of this "
Team Decathlon " in May.
“, a team bringing together 33 athletes that the brand will support until Paris 2024. The list unveiled on Tuesday includes 15 women and 18 men representing a total of 21 Olympic and Paralympic sports.
There are several young talents who will be aiming for their first Olympic participation such as the swimmer Mary-Ambre Moluh, 17, or the shooter, 20, Camille Jedrzejewski, but also more experienced athletes like the handball goalkeeper Vincent Gérard or of the fencer Romain Cannone, titled at the Tokyo Games last year.
In the role of coach, the equipment manufacturer relied on another great champion, now retired: Yohann Diniz, world champion in the 50km walk in 2017. “
After Tokyo
(his last Games a year ago)
, I was keen to pass on my experience to other athletes and I found in Decathlon the same desire to build the future of sport
,” he explains.
“
It is from this common will that this Team Athletes was born.
Together, we are extremely proud to support these men and women in their preparation to qualify and obtain medals at the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. This Team Athletes is a real opportunity to get the sport moving,
Indeed, beyond providing financial assistance to certain athletes whose means are often limited, Decathlon also wants to take advantage of this to develop, with their participation, new products intended for the general public.
With also, why not, the idea of a future retraining after their high-level sports career.
