Tokyo (AFP)

"I'll be there in Paris", "See you in 2024!"

While the France team has remained in Tokyo below its objectives and standards with 33 medals, all eyes are already on Paris and it is time to make room for the "2024 generation".

In some sports, athletics in the first place, this famous generation-2024 is not yet very embodied.

At the Tokyo Olympic Stadium, only Kevin Mayer (29) won a medal and the relief seems absent.

"A month ago, we had the European U23 Championships where we broke a medal record (...) Athletes are emerging, I have a list of about twenty names who are real potential for 2024 and that we have not all put in the bath. We can not say that there is not a succession which is preparing, however assured to AFP the president of the French Federation of athletics André Giraud.

Among these names is undoubtedly that of Sasha Zhoya, 19 years old and European junior champion in the 110m hurdles last month.

But for the rest, the short-term outlook is still not bright.

In swimming, the record also shows only one medal, won over 50 m by the thirty-something Florent Manaudou, but the panorama seems less gloomy as Paris-2024 approaches.

- Performing judo -

"We knew that this season, it was going to be fair for us" but "four or five athletes managed to break glass ceilings", assured the DTN Julien Issoulié.

Maxime Grousset (22), promising fourth in the 100m, and Léon Marchand, 6th in the 400m medley at 19, thus successfully completed their Games in Tokyo and are expected in Paris.

Swimmer Maxime Grousset in the semi-final of the 100m freestyle at the Tokyo Games, July 28, 2021 Jonathan NACKSTRAND AFP / Archives

Among the big purveyors of medals, judo is already in working order.

"There is a real dynamic that has taken hold. We hope that it will last until Paris-2024. It will be necessary to shine where we did not shine," the president of the AFP told AFP. French Judo Federation Stéphane Nomis.

Where the Blues did not shine, it is in the boys, where it will be necessary to find medalists behind Teddy Riner (32 years old), who hinted that he would be part of the party.

Luka Mkheidze (25), bronze medalist in -60 kg, showed that he had the level, but in certain categories, France is not rich.

In women, on the other hand, it is abundance.

All the Tokyo medalists will be at least candidates for the selection, from the youngest Romane Dicko (21 years old, bronze in +78 kg) and Sarah-Léonie Cysique (23 years old, silver in -57kg), to the oldest Clarisse Agbegnenou ( 28 years old, gold in -63 kg), via Amandine Buchard (26 years old, silver in -52 kg) and Madeleine Malonga (27 years old, silver in -78 kg).

The judoka Clarisse Agbegnenou crowned in individual and in teams is greeted on her return from Tokyo, August 2, 2021 in Paris STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN AFP / Archives

- "Performance 2024" -

In fencing, Romain Cannone (24), the individual gold medalist swordsman to everyone's surprise, was rather expected in 2024, but he embodies well this generation in a hurry who tasted the Games in Tokyo and will arrive in Paris strong from this experience.

The remark also applies to those who, unlike Cannone, failed in Tokyo, such as mountain biker Loana Lecomte, who arrived as a huge favorite and who left without a medal.

At 21, she has time to erase this failure.

In general, the extreme youth of the representatives of French cycling in Tokyo, especially on the track and in BMX, encourages optimism.

And then, quite logically, the new sports introduced at the Olympic Games, in Tokyo or Paris, have also brought and will bring their share of new faces, which are as many hopes for a medal.

In kite-surfing for example, which will appear in 2024, the French are among the best in the world, like Nicolas Parlier (26), world champion in 2019.

© 2021 AFP