One of the great French chances of athletics begins the decathlon competition on Wednesday at the Olympic Games in Tokyo with the stated objective of winning his first gold medal.
Kevin Mayer is a favorite despite his frustrating last world championships in Doha in 2019.
It is perhaps on him that rests the greatest hopes of tricolor athletics at the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Decathlete Kevin Mayer plays his second Olympics on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, from 2 a.m. French time, five after his silver medal in Rio behind American legend Ashton Eaton.
In Brazil, the Montpellier player had enchanted French supporters with his performance and charisma, and here he is in a good position this summer to go for the Olympic gold medal, the absolute Grail, while Eaton retired from sports.
Five years after Rio, the Frenchman presents himself as the favorite of the competition as the new world record holder, despite the last frustrating Worlds.
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A postponement of the Olympics that came at the right time
World champion in 2017, Kevin Mayer experienced the nightmarish 2019 Worlds in Doha.
In the lead after the discus throw, the Montpellier had to give up the competition because of his pain in the left Achilles tendon, hamstrings and right knee.
The postponement of the Olympics due to the Covid-19 pandemic allowed him to prepare more calmly and easily pass the Olympic qualifications more than a year later, on Reunion Island at the end of December 2020, with the fourth best career score (8.552 points).
A deliverance for the French.
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Separated from his former historic trainer Bertrand Valcin since the 2019 Worlds, Kevin Mayer is launching a new structure built around his physical trainer Jérôme Simian and Alexandre Bonacorsi, a childhood friend responsible for keeping all the performance data up to date. athlete. After weighing the pros and cons at length, Mayer decided to participate in the Euro indoor in Torun (Poland) in March 2021 as a "rehearsal before the Olympics". He won without surprise (6,392 points) and above all filled with confidence. "I've been drooling over the championships since 2018 and it's good to come back to the box (the podium,
editor's note
). It's a step for the Games and all the work that I have put in place with my new team starts to pay, ”he says.
"The heat is not a problem for me at all"
In order to acclimatize to the sweltering temperatures of Tokyo, Mayer spends two weeks in Dubai (United Arab Emirates) in June.
The opportunity for him to see that his little glitch in a calf, which appeared a few weeks before, is nothing more than a bad memory.
"It was a high course in terms of intensity and quantity with harsher conditions than in Tokyo", explains the Frenchman.
"We realized that the heat didn't bother me at all."
Apart from the two weeks spent in Dubai, Mayer did most of his preparation in Montpellier at the Philippidès stadium, while taking advantage of the weight room recently built in his house.
D-2 pic.twitter.com/U7CLFBzqXf
- Kevin MAYER (@mayer_deca) August 2, 2021
The Montpellier driver begins his decathlon on Wednesday with the 100m event.
Not really the strong point of Kevin Mayer, more comfortable in the throws.
It will be history to start slowly his competition before the end so hoped for in apotheosis, Thursday after the 1,500 m.