The Olympic decathlon vice-champion announced it in the mixed zone on the sidelines of the Paris indoor meeting where he also forfeited when he had to line up for 60m hurdles.
"I had pain in my right Achilles tendon after my 2nd vaccine in September, but I have no comments on the vaccine. I managed this pain very well until I got Covid in January just before the competitions, and I admit that with each winter competition, I chained a lot, I had more and more remnants of pain (...) yesterday in Rouen at the pole (he crossed 5.26m) I had trouble walking between tries. At some point you have to be reasonable, it's the winter season, it's only for fun, so I have no regrets."
"I'm happy with my winter season, I did a lot of work which will allow me to be much more serene from a technical point of view for the summer," he said.
It was an injury to the other Achilles tendon, the left, which forced Mayer to retire from the Doha Worlds in 2019. Since then, he has won a second Olympic silver medal last summer in Tokyo. , after Rio in 2016.
This summer, he is aiming for a second world title in Eugene (Oregon) in July, and will then decide whether to line up at the European Championships in Munich (Germany) in August.
© 2022 AFP