"I'm not disappointed, I'm not angry, I just don't understand this decision," he told AFP.
"It's a mistake for French sport to take me away from the Olympic road so early. I could have put pressure on the other members of the France team" until the 2024 Olympic Games (26 July-11 August), continued the 35-year-old canoe world champion in 2011 and European champion in 2021.
The FFCK unveiled the composition of the France 2023 team, including eleven names, including three in men's canoe (Lucas Roisin, Nicolas Gestin and Jules Bernardet) at the end of "the national identification time organized in Vaires-sur-Marne last week, the final step in the selection process of the France team," she explained beforehand in her statement.
Gargaud did not, by his own admission, approach these selections "in the best conditions" because of tendinitis in a shoulder.
"If I were a coach, I would not have selected myself first in terms of my times, but I would have selected myself second or third (position) in view of my past and present record. I'm 4th in the world, it's been more than ten years since I left the top level in the world," he insisted.
"Unmissable"
"I am unavoidable," hammered the Marseillais.
Gargaud had already been deprived of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, ousted at the end of the last competition in a traditionally ruthless selection process with only one boat per country per event.
Olympic canoe-slalom champion Denis Gargaud during a shoot in Paris, September 19, 2017 © Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP/Archives
"We are in a very dense category, with five-six boats for only three places," recalled to AFP Rémi Gaspard, director of performance of the FFCK.
"It's understandable that Denis doesn't understand the decision," he continued. "But it's an assumed choice, it's a +process+ constructed. We took into account a lot of data and elements, including the ability to perform in big events."
The eleven selected are expected to field up at the European Games in Krakow, Poland (21 June-2 July), and at the 2023 World Championships in Lee Valley, Great Britain (19-24 September).
At the end of the 2023 Worlds and the World Cup final on the site of the 2024 Olympic Games in Vaires-sur-Marne (5-8 October), this selection will be reduced to one name per discipline (two in kayak cross).
Denis Gargaud at the Canoe Slalom World Championships in Pau, August 28, 2022 © GAIZKA IROZ / AFP/Archives
Even if there is theoretically the possibility that the composition of the France team will be reviewed after the first international competitions of the 2023 season, Gargaud has no illusions: "I am very pessimistic for the future, but I have always been professional and I will stay focused," he insisted.
"We have a deep respect for his record and everything he has accomplished," added Rémi Gaspard. It's normal that Denis Gargaud's name gets attention, but we have a team of France that has a lot of potential," he concluded.
© 2023 AFP