Paris (AFP)

By winning against Germany in Berlin on Friday evening, the French volleyball players qualified for the Tokyo Olympic Games (July 24-August 9), where the band at Earvin Ngapeth hopes to do better than during the first four French participations.

Between the first in Seoul in 1988 and the Carioca disillusionment in 2016, the Blues never got on the podium and never did better than their 8th place in South Korea.

. Seoul-1988: the first

The generation of Alain Fabiani arrives full of hope, determined to erase the disappointment of the World Cup in France. Two years before, this tournament has certainly helped popularize volleyball in France, but the French did not obtain the coveted medal (6th).

Qualified thanks to its silver medal at Euro-1987, the team of Philippe Blain and Laurent Tillie (the future coaches) and Eric Ngapeth (the father of Earvin) nevertheless suffered a new disillusionment for the first participation of France at the Games since the introduction of the discipline in Tokyo in 1964.

Despite three victories in five group matches, she finished third, beaten by Argentina in the set ratio, and was barred from racing for the podium. The French are content with 8th place.

. Barcelona-1992: the rout

At the end of the cycle, the French team snatched its ticket in a qualification tournament in Montpellier in May, but it has far fewer ambitions than in Seoul. It indeed slowly receded in the world hierarchy during the Olympiad (8th of the World-1990, 5th of the Euro-1989 and 9th of the Euro-1991).

In Barcelona, ​​it was a complete failure with only one victory against Japan. It will take twelve years to see the Blues at the Games.

. Athens-2004: the renaissance

It is again a conquering French team that arrives in Greece where the podium seems accessible to the team of Frantz Granvorka, Stéphane Antiga and Hubert Henno, the libero.

Two years before, the French succeeded where their predecessors had failed by climbing to the third step of the podium at the World Cup in Argentina.

They confirmed their installation among the nations which count by taking the silver medal of Euro-2003 in Germany, beaten only by Italy in a final of anthology (3-2), in the same Max-Schmelling Hall where their heirs obtained their ticket to Tokyo on Sunday.

Unfortunately Philippe Blain's men have lost a lot of energy in the endless labyrinth of qualifying tournaments, validating the ticket at the last moment.

Physically dull, they are caught entering Argentina, a failure they will never manage to erase, finishing 5th in their pool (out of six) with only two wins.

. Rio-2016: disillusionment

This time, the podium seems to reach out to them.

The golden generation of Earvin Ngapeth, Jénia Grebennikov, Antonin Rouzier and Benjamin Toniutti, most of whom will be in Tokyo next summer, has given French volleyball the best results in its history. Fourth at the Mondial-2014, she won the World League in 2015 and followed up the same summer with the title of European champion, the first in a major tournament.

However, at Maracanazinho, it is a fiasco. Rinsed physically and mentally by a long qualification campaign which did not end until June in a TQO in Japan, the French are crushed in their first match, at 9:00 am, by the Italians, assured them of their Olympic participation for almost a year.

The Blues will beat Canada and Mexico well but will fail in the last cleaver match against Brazil, future Olympic champion. Even more infuriating: it is a doubtful result of the Italians, beaten without fighting by Canada in a match without stake for them, which put them in the obligation to succeed the feat against the Seleçao to go into quarters.

© 2020 AFP