• Kevin Mayer won the silver medal in the decathlon this Thursday at the Tokyo Olympics.

  • The French, who had revealed the day before hurt his back before the competition, tells how he feared at every moment of having to give up, until the final deliverance.

  • Vice-Olympic champion as in Rio, he leaves with “a feeling of accomplishment” that he had never known before.

From our special correspondent in Tokyo

He hadn't come to Japan for that, but he will come away better anyway. Kevin Mayer has probably just spent the hardest two days of his athletic life. The most informative, too. Sharp as a plane to go for the Olympic title, the decathlete believed before each of the ten events that his time had arrived. That he should take off his bib and throw in the towel, blame it on that damn lumbago that broke out a week ago. But he held on, got ripped off and finally went for the silver medal behind the untouchable Damian Warner. A miracle.

“This medal has the flavor of the warrior, of the phoenix rising from its ashes.

It's a sense of accomplishment that I rarely had, he appreciates.

Apart from the height and the javelin, it was all pain, waiting and stress.

It was hell.

In fact, Mayer quickly realized that he would never fight for gold.

After the shot put on Wednesday morning, he decided to unplug.

“I no longer thought of the points, of nothing, just to make myself happy.

Impossible, with this stewed back.

The anti-inflammatory drugs still allow him to achieve two huge perfs, those that will bring him to the podium.

The winning javelin told from within

He achieved 2.08m at the height Wednesday afternoon, his best career jump, then released an absolutely incredible javelin throw in the penultimate event on Thursday. As we began to fall asleep in the surrounding humidity, we saw a missile go to Tokyo Bay, followed by a scream that shook the entire Olympic Stadium. We let the hero tell:

“I was really stressed before, we waited for six hours, I couldn't rest because I knew it was there or never for the medal. I had to put 10 meters to Lepage and Moloney [in front of him in 2nd and 3rd places at the time]. On the first try, I feel like I have no legs, nothing. And then the second, I think of all my relatives, there is this famous trance which is particular to me which rises. At such times I am much more lucid, and instead of absolutely wanting to put a lot of intensity, I only think of one thing: what we have worked on in training all year. When it falls, I think there are 69-70 m. I say to myself "it's good I did the job", and then I see 73 and I assure you I lost my brain. "

🇫🇷 Kevin Mayer boosted after exploding his record in the javelin throw.

The Frenchman's second try was more than conclusive, reaching 73.09 m with the tip of his javelin 🤩 # JeuxOlympiques # Tokyo2020



Follow the Olympics live ➡ https://t.co/mYKmiZQKF7 pic.twitter.com/IzQ7X2ubBk

- francetvsport (@francetvsport) August 5, 2021

He is not the only one. His physical trainer Jérôme Simian and his friend Alexandre Bonacorsi, responsible for monitoring his performance, rush to the bottom of the stands, where Mayer joins them. The three embrace, free themselves from all this pressure accumulated over the past week. They know that except for a cataclysm on the 1,500 m - which will not happen - the money is insured. "It was worth the fight," Simian observed a little later. We wanted to offer a battle royale with Warner, who was in fantastic shape, and it would have been one of the best decathlons in Olympic history, I think. But we still bring back a medal for France. "

And not just any France.

The one who had, until then, not yet a medal in athletics in these Games.

Renaud Lavellenie, who could not defend his chances on pole vault, was in the stands, with his coach Philippe d'Encausse.

In recent months, they have participated in the training of the decathlete.

One of the big changes made by the latter to his daily life, he who has recently separated from the one who has always accompanied him, Bertrand Valcin, and who passes more and more in his house in Montpellier, where he made set up a large fitness room.

And a basketball hoop, for his personal pleasure.

"I was facing a wall, and I broke it with my head"

"It's small details that make training more bearable from a physical and nervous point of view," he explained before the competition.

This attention to detail, this perfectionism, "spoils his life" as he admits today, but allows him to go even further in suffering.

And therefore the performance.

“Having been at the bottom for two days and finishing with this medal is an incredible emotional lift,” he describes.

I was facing a wall, and I smashed it with my head the whole way, no matter what bones were cracking in my head.

It was impossible for me to finish this decathlon, I still can't believe it.

"

However, it is with the blue-white-red flag around his chest that Kevin Mayer ended the evening. He assures him, without his back problem, he could crack perfs as well as the height and the javelin in all the tests. But no regrets, and especially not that of having delayed before taking anti-inflammatory drugs. “They masked the pain, but also its sensations. However, it works a lot at that, notes Alexandre Bonacorsi. We have also seen that not all of his performances were there. "

"The decathlon is the guts that you go out on the big day, you have to know how to adapt", adds the person concerned, proud of the way in which he reacted.

The next version of the decathlete, already world champion in 2017 and world record holder, will be even better.

“I am evolving as an athlete to go for very big things, he promises.

It takes a while, but damn the day it comes out… ”We'll try to be there.

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