MAYER. Expected, the Frenchman Kévin Mayer answered present to win the world title on the night of Sunday to Monday at the World Athletics Championships.
He did it ! Despite a truncated and difficult preparation, Kévin Mayer was crowned decathlon world champion for the second time in his career at the World Athletics Championships in the United States after that of London in 2017. The Frenchman achieved 8,816 pts to beat the Canadian Pierce LePage (8,701 pts) and American Zachery Ziemek (8,676 pts) to bring the only medal to the French team at these Worlds.
“I didn’t have a lot of fun in the events, but I had some in the 1,500 as in the discus, the pole vault and the javelin, he blurted out, once in the mixed zone. When you don’t know if you you’ll crack, it’s not easy. The harder it is, the more incredible the lift to glory. Today (he blows), I’m double world champion. I’m happy to bring visibility in the decathlon, this sport deserves it.”
Questioned again a few hours later, the Frenchman explained that he wanted to be a legend in his sport and leave a real mark. “I don’t know if my ego is that important because I don’t care if I double or triple (his number of world titles)… I live this sport as a condition for my happiness. I love myself. coaching, I love expressing myself in the league and I love winning medals. I actually give myself the means every year to go and relive that. I’m first…. It’s a huge feeling, it’s not not like last year when there was an Olympic medal but I was not champion I saved the furniture… I have always admired the legends, Teddy Riner, Zinedine Zidane, Martin Fourcade… be careful I don’t don’t compare me to them but I would like to become a legend too! And you have to take advantage because I’m already 30 years old, it won’t last forever but I would like to have a long career (smile).
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Kevin Mayer was born on February 10, 1992 in Argenteuil, in the department of Val-d’Oise in Île-de-France. In his youth, he mainly played tennis, which he practiced for 8 years but also tried other sports (swimming, rugby, badminton, handball, gymnastics, etc.) before discovering a passion for athletics following a cross. Good in several disciplines, he refuses to specialize and naturally ends up turning to the decathlon.
Cadet world champion (2009) then juniors (2010), Kevin Mayer started with the seniors in 2012, the year of the London Olympics, which he finished in an honorable 15th place. In 2013, Kevin Mayer won his first international senior medal by winning the silver medal at the European Indoor Championships. In 2014, the Argenteuillais won silver at the European Championships, proof of his constant progress, before having a blank year in 2015 due to injuries. Kevin Mayer therefore arrives fresh at the Rio Olympics in 2016, where he obtains a beautiful silver medal behind one of the legends of the discipline, the American Ashton Eaton, by breaking the French record. He continued his momentum since he won the European indoor championship (heptathlon) by seizing the European record and confirmed behind by winning the world championships in August in London.
In 2018, the Argenteuillais won the world indoor championships before giving up during the European championships during the summer after biting his three attempts at length. Following his failure, he took part in the Décastar de Talence in September and managed to break the world record. After a year 2019 truncated by injuries and the postponement of the Olympics, Kevin Mayer won the European indoor championships (heptathlon) for the second time in March 2021 before, therefore, winning an Olympic silver medal in Tokyo.
Kevin Mayer won his first world titles in cadets and juniors, in 2009 and 2010 respectively. Outdoors, the native of Argenteuil won a silver medal in the decathlon at the European Championships in 2014, a gold medal at the 2017 world championships and a silver medal at the Rio Games in 2016 (in addition to the silver medal in Tokyo). He also won the European Cup in 2013 and the Decastar in 2018, where he claimed the decathlon world record. Indoors (heptathlon), the Frenchman has a silver medal (2013) and two gold medals (2018 and 2021) at the European championships, as well as a gold medal at the 2018 world championships. He is also European record holder since 2017.
Kevin Mayer, one of the stars of French athletics, receives a comfortable salary, by his own admission, which is quite rare in the world of French athletics. The thing is, for brands, I seem to be worth a lot less because I’m a decathlete. They don’t want to pay the price. It is, for the moment, a little disappointing. But I don’t exercise for that. I’m happy with what I have, I live very well as I am. I’m lucky to have two big sponsors: Nike with an eight-year contract, which is very valuable, and Infologic, which follows me until the end of my career. I’m lucky to be at peace. I admit that we expected better but I’m living things very well”, he confessed in 2018 to GQ. Even if he is still far from touching as much as a footballer or a tennis player, he has In addition, he has been directly impacted by the pandemic, like many Olympic athletes. His income is in fact directly indexed to his performance in competition, which has been rather rare in recent months… “There are people who die every day. The priority is to solve the health problem. Yes, we will all lose money, me a lot no doubt. But it seems so secondary to me right now. This is not what disturbs me in any case”, he confided in full containment of the spring of 2020.
Kevin Mayer comes from an athletic family. Her father André is a sports educator and her mother Carole is a PE teacher. He has two brothers, one of whom, Thomas, is his manager, and a half-brother. The decathlete has been in a relationship for several years with Delphine Jariel, French windsurfing champion (windsurfing) who aims to compete in the Olympic Games in Paris (2024) or Los Angeles (2028).