Tokyo (AFP)

Five years after the Rio raid (6 medals, 2 titles), the French boxing team already knows that it will not be able to do better at the Tokyo Olympic Games where only five fighters, with Sofiane Oumiha in the lead, will have the heavy task of perpetuating the spirit of the historic summer 2016.

The challenge promises to be difficult for the Blues (Sofiane Oumiha, Billal Bennama, Samuel Kistohurry, Mourad Aliev, Maïva Hamadouche), who will hardly be able to avoid the difficult comparison with their glorious predecessors.

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The Olympic Games in Brazil revealed to the general public an exceptional generation, led by the "golden couple" formed by Tony Yoka and Estelle Mossely, and become the standard-bearer of the discipline at the national level.

This shows that the bar has been set very high for the successors of the "Solid Team".

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The French Boxing Federation is also measured in terms of objective, aware of the complexity of the situation for its troops, who had four more representatives in Rio.

"I wish there were five medals but it will be difficult," admits the president of the FFBoxe, Dominique Nato.

After a qualifying course strewn with pitfalls due to the health crisis with a TQO of the Europe zone in London, abruptly interrupted in March 2020 by the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic and relaunched just a month and a half ago, c Finally, it is above all the desire to do battle that predominates.

"We had a complicated year and it will be different Games, but the idea is to go to Japan, hit everyone and bring back medals. We will then have a party in Paris", explains John. Dovi, the coach of the men's collective.

If repeating the feat of Rio will be impossible, the Blues can still bet on two safe values, Sofiane Oumiha (-63 kg), the only survivor of Rio-2016, and Billal Bennama (-52 kg), as well as on the attraction Maïva Hamadouche (-60 kg), coming from pro boxing to take up a hell of a challenge on the Olympic stage.

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- Sacred challenge for Hamadouche -

"Going for the medal, that would be the Holy Grail, but I'm trying not to put pressure on myself," said Oumiha, promoted to captain of the Blues.

Vice-Olympic champion in 2016 and world champion in 2017, the 26-year-old Toulousain intends to leave Japan with the supreme title before embarking on the deep end of professionalism.

For Bennama (23), 3rd in the World Championships in 2019, the podium is also within reach.

The only qualified Frenchwoman, Maïva Hamadouche, for her part, was not afraid of putting herself in danger.

Holder of a world belt (IBF) in the super feathers since 2016, the 31-year-old policewoman, nicknamed "El Veneno" (the venom), decided in 2019 to join the Olympic national team while continuing in parallel his professional career (22 victories in 23 fights, 1 defeat).

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Even if obtaining her ticket for the Games was done in pain after a triple operation of an arm, the Albigensian believes it hard as iron.

"I live this adventure at 200%, she says. As a professional, I never thought in my life to have the opportunity to do the Olympics. It's a boxing that I do not particularly like but I'm going to give my all to make the most of it. I'm leaving my titles aside and going with my guts and my heart. "

This will have to be done in order not to squander the legacy of Rio-2016.

© 2021 AFP