Paris 2024 Olympics: is France in time to finish in the top 5 of the best nations?

Axel May, edited by Ophélie Artaud 11:56 a.m., March 10, 2023

10,000 athletes will participate in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and are already in the starting blocks.

For their part, the French are aiming for the top 5, with 80 medals.

A challenge proposed by Emmanuel Macron.

But is it playable?

It is a high objective that has been set for tricolor athletes.

Because the last time France finished in the top 5 of the most successful nations was in 1996 in Atlanta.

In Tokyo, in 2021, for example, France settled for eighth place.

So, even with the "home games" effect, getting back into the top 5 promises to be quite a challenge.

Especially since there was a delay in ignition: the National Sports Agency, created in particular to support athletes towards medals, took time to set up.

But Fabien Canu, director of the National Institute of Sport, Expertise and Performance (Insep), this factory for champions based in the Bois de Vincennes in Paris, is nevertheless optimistic.

"We are sincerely able to reach this fifth place"

"It's true that we have a new sports organization in France which was set up late. The Agency was created in 2019, by the time it takes its bearings, we are in extremely tight timing "I think we've caught up. There are even a lot of sports that we don't particularly expect where it really shudders: archery, weightlifting, for example. The dynamic has taken for a few months, it's quite recent", he explains at the microphone of Europe 1.

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As for the top 5 objective, for the director of Insep, the challenge is possible to meet.

"With 500 days to go before the Games, with a goal of fifth place in the nations ranking, I think we're in the right timing. Because we're seeing a number of new champions arrive at the image of Léon Marchand in swimming. Then, a fifth place, it is above all decided on the number of gold medals. We are sincerely able to reach this fifth place, knowing that we have strong points in judo, in fencing, in cycling among others", he assures.

"The TOP 5 is between 15 and 20 fifteen gold medals"

Even if to finish in the top 5, French athletes will have to obtain "between 15 and 20 fifteen gold medals. The range is there", announces Fabien Canu to Europe 1. "It's better to get closer to 20 Because there are a few more Olympic disciplines that have integrated the program of the Games. So I think that we will have to approach 20 gold medals, and in total around fifty medals. For having discussed with the Americans there a few months, this is the level at which they see France."

If he is optimistic, the director of Insep remains cautious.

"We will see even more clearly this year because there will be world championships in practically all disciplines. We will see where we are on the world stage. But still, the latest end-of-year results last are quite reassuring", admits Fabien Canu.

“There is a dynamic that is there”

Quite reassuring, especially since the athletes will be in France, in front of their public.

"It still matters a lot. We can clearly see that there is a greater investment on the part of the athletes, on the part of the coaches, there is a dynamic that is there. We will have to control it to the end so as not to not fall into pressure, be inhibited because it will be the Games in France", warns Fabien Canu all the same.

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"But the dynamic is there. And there is what was driven by the National Sports Agency. In a lot of sports, we went to get the best coaches abroad. They arrived a year or so ago. two years and we can see that it's starting to bear fruit, especially in swimming. So that reassures me about our ability to achieve the objective. And then we put Insep in the Olympic and Paralympic colors. We decorate the buildings, we do things like that, which play a psychological role in creating this positive dynamic", explains the director of this factory for champions, even if he recognizes that there are still initiatives to be put in place.

“We are finally on the right track”

"We still have things to do, in terms of gathering, motivation. We are thinking about operations that we could carry out, bring in former glories who would carry the good word. But honestly, that's it, I think that 'We are finally on the right track,' he concludes at the microphone of Europe 1.

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On the right track, the athletes probably are, even if finishing in the top 5 in Paris means getting closer to 20 gold medals, double what the tricolor athletes did in Tokyo.

It will be anything but obvious.