Lavillenie, Tamgho, Martinot-Lagarde… these veterans who said goodbye to the Paris Games

5 min

The Olympic selections can be very cruel. With less than a month remaining before the start of the Paris Olympics, the battle for minimums is ending for many French athletes who have not yet secured their places for the world sporting event of the year. . If some have been assured of seeing Paris for a while, others have stumbled in the last meters and seen their dream of an Olympic meeting disappear for good.

This is the case of pole vaulter Renaud Lavillenie, 37, who failed this Sunday, June 30, to obtain his ticket for the Games during the French Championships in Angers, held on the same day as the qualification deadline. Olympic pole vault champion at the London Olympics in 2012 and silver medalist in 2016 in Rio, Lavillenie had to clear a bar at 5.82 m – the Olympic minimum height set for the discipline – to participate in the fourth Olympic Games of his career. But the Charentais stumbled three times at 5.72 m, he had not cleared 5.82 m since July 2022 in Eugene in the United States.

Having undergone hamstring surgery last September, Lavillenie had been engaged in a time trial race since his return to competition on May 22. But despite seven competitions in a row in the space of a month, he never seemed able to regain his level, having won five world medals from 2009 to 2017 and three European coronations (2010, 2012 and 2014) in his career, while having held the world record in the discipline (6.16 m indoors in 2014) for six years. He nevertheless swept aside, in front of the Angevin public, any desire to retire: “ I am not like my comrades (Lesueur, Compaoré and Tamgho the day before, editor’s note), I am not announcing my retirement ! “.

Missed bets for Martinot-Lagarde and Tamgho

Disappointment also in the 110 meters hurdles for Pascal Martinot-Lagarde, 4th at the Rio Olympics in 2016 then 5th in Tokyo in 2021, who finished off the podium this Sunday in Angers and will not see the Paris Games either. European champion in 2018 and still holder of the French record for the distance (12″95) since 2014, “PML” only completed the race in 13″70 in 5th place, far from the minimum set at 13 “27. In front of him, Sasha Zhoya retained his title of French champion and will represent one of the main chances of medals in the discipline in Paris, after having achieved the minimums last summer.

On Saturday, Teddy Tamgho, a veteran of the French athletics team, also missed his Olympic bet in Angers and announced his definitive retirement from sport. Athletics is over. I’m moving on, it’s over. I’m going to train, that’s all. Now, I’m going to “McDo” “, he said humorously after a jump of 16.47 m, far from the 17.22 m required to be invited to Paris.

Coming out of retirement for the first time at the end of March 2023 after five years away from the slopes, Tamgho had set himself one last major challenge: to participate in the first Olympic Games of his career in his hometown. Despite being the 2013 world champion, the Parisian has never experienced an Olympic event due to injuries that deprived him of the 2012 and 2016 editions. I was aware of the risk I was taking by coming back, I had taken into consideration that there was little chance that it would succeed. “, he admitted. He is notably one of the coaches of the Burkinabé Hugues Fabrice Zango, who aims to win his first ever Olympic gold medal for Burkina Faso in Paris.

Hammer thrower Quentin Bigot, 5th at the 2021 Olympics and returning to competition in May after back surgery, also let his Olympic ticket slip away on June 29. Summer is going to be very difficult to get through. Missing the Games in France, in Paris… It’s hard, but it will be even harder in a month, that’s for sure. “, he admitted.

Sprinter Christophe Lemaitre, Olympic bronze medalist in the 4x100m in 2012 and the 200m in 2016, announced on June 27 that he was ending his career at the age of 34 due to a new injury. The reasons are quite simple : it’s just that I did everything this year to participate in the Paris Games, except that I didn’t succeed, unfortunately. This is a sign that I am having trouble getting back to the high level and that I must stop trying to chase performance and now think about running simply for myself. “, did he declare. If many veterans are therefore drawing the curtain on the French Olympic team, others like Riner, Karabatic and Manaudou intend to shine one last time before hanging up.

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