Paris (AFP)

Grounded by the Covid-19 pandemic for a season and a half, with a drastic drop in the number of licensees, team sports hope to ride the extraordinary epics of the French teams at the Tokyo Games to recover the practitioners.

With three Olympic titles - handball players, handball players and volleyball players - a final against Team USA for basketball players and a bronze medal for basketball players, the five indoor team sports teams achieved an unprecedented and exceptional harvest at the Games Olympic.

The coach of the French volleyball team, Laurent Tillie, is carried in triumph by his players, after their victory in the final against Russia (3 sets to 2), on August 7, 2021 at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games JUNG Yeon -I AFP

For these three disciplines, these performances come at the right time, while they have been deprived of competitions and training for months due to two confinements (spring 2020 and fall / winter 2020) due to the health situation.

And if the professional championships were able to continue in November 2020 unlike March 2020, it was without an audience until mid-May 2021, then with very small gauges for the last matches of the season.

"We had said that the best recovery plan, it was victories for the French teams. It is very important", underlines for AFP Philippe Bana, former emblematic national technical director of the French hand and become in the fall 2020 president of the Federation.

Philippe Bana, then national technical director of French handball, during a press conference, July 19, 2016 in Roissy GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT AFP / Archives

- The summer series -

The exploits of the five teams were followed in the form of a summer series, in six (basketball) or eight (hand, volley) episodes on television in the late morning or early afternoon, with a great hearing success.

The volleyball players 'final against Russia reached a peak audience of 6.8 million viewers on France 2. The third crown at the Handball players' Games, provided a little before volleyball, attracted up to 6.1 million viewers.

The joy of French handball player Nikola Karabatic and the French bench, after the victory against Denmark (25-23) in the final at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, August 7, 2021 Franck FIFE AFP

And the basketball players, whose final was broadcast at 4:30 am, were not left out, since 4.6 million viewers saw Nicolas Batum's decisive counter in the semi-final against the Slovenes.

The French Nicolas Batum against the shot of the Slovenian Klemen Prepelic, in the last seconds of their semi-final, August 5, 2021 at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Charlie NEIBERGALL POOL / AFP / Archives

"After what we have just experienced, make people dream and make them want to come back for those who would have stopped, constrained and forced, and to come for those who discovered volleyball through this adventure, there is no There is indeed no better recovery plan ", appreciates Eric Tanguy, the president of the French Federation.

For these disciplines, there is a certain urgency in the face of the drop in the number of graduates.

In handball, 100,000 licensees have been missing since the start of the pandemic, a decrease of 20%.

In volleyball, the federation estimates between 100 and 105,000 licensees against 143,000 before the pandemic.

And in basketball, the drop is over 150,000 to drop to 515,000 licensees.

The impact of the Games, "it systematically gives 10% more licensees, with us, it goes up to 50,000," said Philippe Bana.

What to recover some of the lost licensees.

Russian volleyball players Dmitry Volkov, Ilyas Kurkaev and Maxim Mikhaylov try to block a smash from Frenchman Earvin Ngapeth, during the final at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, August 7, 2021 JUNG Yeon-je AFP

"I think this is the element that will help us revive volleyball, to find the Federation as we left it in March 2020, even better," hopes Eric Tanguy.

The context looks different, however, with viral circulation still threatening indoor sports practice, and the implementation of the health pass for clubs.

An element that could however reassure the hesitant, with the guarantee of evolving in a safer environment.

© 2021 AFP