When French swimming star Léon Marchand dives into the Olympic pool on Sunday, the 22-year-old might be favorite to win gold — and an important a part of the host nation’s effort to spice up its medal haul.
After a long time of stagnation within the backside of the top-10 Olympic medal-winning international locations, France started a push to enhance the sporting prowess and psychological resilience of its athletes forward of the Games beginning on Friday.
The cheerleader-in-chief, President Emmanuel Macron, set France a goal to develop into a top-five medal-winning nation. Consultants and Macron himself admit this might be a tricky problem, given the assets and expertise pool accessible to sporting leaders such because the US and China, and the pinnacle begin the UK and Australia have achieved on funding and outcomes.
However Macron stated this week: “We have now invested like by no means earlier than in France over the previous seven years . . . in our high-level athletes.” He added: “There might be a home-field benefit, so we now have to be within the prime 5.”
Claude Onesta, a gruff however extremely profitable former coach of the boys’s nationwide handball crew, is main Macron’s mission. The Paris Video games would be the first massive check of his extra top-down, nationwide method, impressed by the UK.
“Our outdated method was invented within the Seventies out of a interval of mediocrity, however had grown outdated. Different international locations caught up whereas we have been caught,” Onesta instructed the Monetary Instances. “There was no time for diplomacy.”
Onesta turned to the UK as a mannequin as a result of it had drastically improved its Olympic outcomes because the late Nineteen Nineties, largely fuelled by a giant money infusion from Nationwide Lottery cash. It employed one of the best coaches, constructed elite-level amenities and paid athletes to coach.
Authorities company UK Sport pushed contemporary funding into sports activities with medal potential. Earlier than the 2000 Sydney Video games, UK Sport distributed £37mn to 13 sports activities. That determine leapt to £209mn earlier than Beijing in 2008, whereas the variety of sports activities receiving money greater than doubled.
The efforts paid off. A surge in podium finishes meant the UK completed third within the medals desk when it hosted the Video games in 2012.
After finding out the UK mannequin, and speaking to France’s personal federation heads about their gripes and needs, Onesta got here away satisfied that the French system wanted a radical and fast shake-up. Its federations have been of uneven high quality, he stated. Complacency had set in as a result of budgets didn’t change primarily based on efficiency, and adoption of finest observe on the whole lot from diet to knowledge analytics was patchy.
His concept was to create the Agence Nationale du Sport to centralise experience and supply extra rigorous oversight. The ANS, based in 2019 and now led by Onesta, secured an additional €110mn on prime of the standard state funding. It started to direct more money to federations with the best medal potential and maintain them accountable for athletes’ progress.
Controversially, Onesta additionally stopped allocating money to federations comparatively equally, though he didn’t dare go so far as the UK in concentrating on fewer sports activities.
“This could have been seen as decapitating the federations and provoked a revolt,” he stated.
As a substitute, extra money was given to 600 athletes on the ANS high-performance record, whereas devoted consultants supported their coaching. The technique was impressed by the UK: France supported 5,500 athletes forward of the 2012 Video games, whereas Staff GB backed about 1,200 however gained way more medals.
French athletes to look at within the Paris Olympics
Léon Marchand
Competing in 4 occasions, the swimming prodigy is France’s nice gold medal hope. He has been coaching at Arizona College the place his coach is Bob Bowman, who taught 23-time gold medal winner Michael Phelps.
Teddy Riner
The judo wrestler has already gained three Olympic golds. Greater than 2 metres tall and weighing about 140kg, Guadeloupe-born Riner, 35, towers over many rivals and has develop into an iconic determine in France, the place there may be eager curiosity in judo.
Clarisse Agbégnénou
The judo star from Rennes gained gold on the Tokyo Video games in 2021. Identified off the tatami mat for her outspokenness about girls’s points, Agbégnénou, 31, had her first youngster two years in the past and is looking for to point out that moms can return to the highest degree in sport.
Vahiné Fierro
The browsing champion from the tiny French Polynesian island of Ra’iātea grew up using the waves. Fierro, 24, is likely one of the favourites within the browsing occasion, which is being held near her island residence in Tahiti on a legendary however tough wave often known as Teahupo’o.
Victor Wembanyama
The basketball participant, 20, has been a sensation within the NBA the place his freakish peak (2.2 metres) and skilful co-ordination have wowed American followers. The French males’s basketball crew hopes to eclipse the silver medal it gained in Tokyo.
Sara Balzer
After successful a silver medal in Tokyo, the 29-year outdated fencer will compete in a single crew and two particular person occasions. She is hitting her stride on the proper time after sturdy performances in latest worldwide competitions.
Onesta’s new method ruffled feathers, particularly with officers in bigger federations who bristled underneath the company’s tutelage.
Julien Issoulié, head of the swimming federation, was initially cautious of ANS meddling, however got here to understand the additional assets that allowed him to recruit a international coach, Jacco Verhaeren, who had pushed the Australia crew to Olympics glory.
“Bringing in an outsider with immediate credibility helped finish squabbling and rivalries between the totally different coaches and native golf equipment. It signalled we had massive ambitions,” stated Issoulié in an interview.
Swimming prodigy Marchand, who will compete in 4 Olympic occasions, will lead the cost. Born in Toulouse to folks who have been aggressive swimmers, Marchand is a product of France’s elite coaching system, which he joined aged 9. However his breakthrough got here in 2021 when he went to the US to coach underneath the previous coach of swimming champion Michael Phelps.
Helped by new methods, he shattered Phelps’s world report final 12 months within the 400-metre particular person medley, a feat he goals to repeat on Sunday.
Past the swimming pool, forecasters predict France can win in sports activities the place it has traditionally been sturdy, similar to fencing, handball, judo and rugby. Requested why France was so sturdy in fencing, Onesta stated: “Properly, we’re the nation of the Three Musketeers, in any case.”
In judo, officers have drawn on ANS experience in knowledge and know-how to higher analyse athletes’ efficiency, and scope out opponents’ methods by way of a purpose-built app.
Whereas French judo’s largest star, the three-time gold medal winner Teddy Riner, advantages from sponsorships, most of his teammates are amateurs with fewer assets, together with 5 girls seen as medal favourites. To assist them earn sufficient to coach, the ANS positioned some in police and armed forces jobs that provided flexibility.
As soon as-weaker sports activities, similar to desk tennis, taekwondo and triathlon, have newfound medal potential.
Browsing, an Olympic sport since 2021, used ANS help to construct a coaching facility in Tahiti close to the well-known Teahupoʻo wave, the place the competitors might be held. Coaches moved to the distant island full time to permit roughly 50 surfers aiming for the Video games to coach on the highly effective wave recognized for its large tubes.
4 surfers certified for the Video games, together with the 24-year-old French Polynesian Vahiné Fierro, who may win gold.
“In our sport there’s a lot we can not grasp, just like the climate situations and the wave, however we now have improved the whole lot we now have management over,” stated Stéphane Corbinien, who heads the browsing federation. “We are going to see quickly whether or not the years of preparation repay.”
