Listening to Renaud Lavillenie, the postponement of the Tokyo Olympic Games, scheduled this summer from July 24 to August 9, to 2021 is good news. Invited by Matthieu Belliard in the morning of Europe 1 Wednesday, the pole vaulter, Olympic champion in 2012 in Beijing and vice Olympic champion in Rio in 2016 welcomed a decision full of common sense.
"The decision was mandatory," said the man who is also president of the Athletes' Commission at the International Athletics Federation. "It seemed surreal (...) We see what conditions we are in now, in France and in many other countries. It is almost impossible to train properly, and to be able to hope to prepare for the Olympic Games as that ", continues Renaud Lavillenie.
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"We will be able to prepare to face this crisis together"
Pending like thousands of other sportsmen expected in Japan this summer, the pole vaulter welcomes this decision, which he considered should have arrived "as quickly as possible". "We athletes now no longer have the weight of having to prepare for the Olympic Games. Now we will be able to prepare to face this crisis together and remain united."
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If he does not deny the sporting questions posed by this postponement, he considers them marginal with regard to the priority: "the health of all", on which "no one can say anything". "Afterwards, for all those who reached the end of their career and who had set themselves the goal of finishing in 2020, within a year they will do their utmost to get there. Now we know that with all the vagaries of sport, some who could have been really in shape this year, maybe they will not be next year and maybe some will be injured. There are lots of hazards that are like that ... ", he concluded.
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