No Kevin Mayer, European decathlon champion this summer in Paris. The image would have been beautiful after its Olympic title in Tokyo but like the Olympic Games, the European athletics championships - August 25 to 30 - were canceled. The announcement was made on Thursday after a meeting of the executive committee of the organizing committee, preceded by a videoconference with the French Athletics Federation (FFA), the Ministries of Sport and the Interior and the inter-ministerial delegation to big events.
"We really tried everything," said Jean Gracia, the president of the organizing committee. We all hoped that the situation could improve quickly, unfortunately, this is not the case. We had even asked the medical commission of the French Federation to make an assessment of the measures to be taken to be able to organize the event. We studied all the possibilities, including the possibility of reducing the number of athletes per event or putting one spectator in two. "
1,400 athletes were expected in Paris
The president of the FFA André Giraud for his part indicated having "taken into account the risk assessment as it was presented by the state services". This is a financial blow for the French Federation, whose national competitions are suspended until the end of July. Just over 50% of tickets for the Charléty stadium in Paris had already been sold for an estimated budget of 17 million euros. But the FFA says it can complete a balanced exercise for 2020.
The athletes are deprived of the second big meeting of the year, after the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, while 1,400 participants from around fifty European countries were expected in Paris. The start of the international season has been postponed until July: of the first nine stages of the Diamond League, which was to open on April 17 in Doha (Qatar), eight are postponed, and Oslo (Norway) has decided to completely modify its competition (no public, single-athlete races) to offer a sort of exhibition on June 11.
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