The Tokyo Olympics officially began this Friday with the opening ceremony, despite the Covid-19 pandemic.

In this context, "there are a little more uncertainties than usual", underlined Claude Onesta, manager of high performance at the National Sports Agency and former coach of the men's handball team, Friday on Europe 1.

INTERVIEW

Like the opening ceremony which took place almost without an audience from 1 p.m. (French time) this Friday, the Tokyo Olympics take place in a very special atmosphere in Japan due to the pandemic of Covid-19.

Consequences can be expected, in particular on the performance of athletes.

"There are a little more uncertainties than usual," said Claude Onesta, former coach of the French men's handball team and now manager of high performance at the National Sports Agency, Friday on Europe 1.

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Difficulties in "positioning yourself in relation to the competition"

Present in Tokyo to accompany the French Olympic delegation, this great connoisseur of high-level sport considers that the absence of the public is not really disturbing for athletes. The latter having become accustomed to this situation after 18 months of pandemic. On the other hand, they could suffer from the lack of competitions carried out so far. "We are dealing with very prepared athletes" but "perhaps with less feeling in view of the small number of competitions from which they were able to benefit, in particular competitions with extreme competition", commented Claude Onesta.

For athletes, the risk is to lack benchmarks in relation to adversity.

"We don't really know how to situate ourselves in relation to their competitive state of form. We do not know how to situate their level in relation to the competition because we haven't seen them for a while", a underlined the former coach.

Claude Onesta, however, wanted to be reassuring for the objectives of French medals: "The training problems that French athletes may have experienced, their competitors have also experienced in one way or another."

Olympics with possibly surprises

Thus, these Olympics could generate their share of surprises, according to Claude Onesta. Athletes will still need to know how to take advantage of their possible status as outsider. "To be able to do this, you have to be ambitious, determined and force the decision," concluded Claude Onesta.