2024 Paralympic Olympics: new saga for Yannick Noah, captain of Les Bleus in wheelchair tennis
After guiding France to success in the Davis Cup and Fed Cup, Yannick Noah was offered a new major challenge on Thursday, December 14, by being named captain of the men's wheelchair tennis team for the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris.
Yannick Noah invited to the Roland-Garros 2023 final. June 11, 2023. AFP - EMMANUEL DUNAND
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Our France Paralympic team will be under the control of a captain called Yannick Noah. He will be captain of the France men's team for the Olympic Games," announced Gilles Moretton, president of the FFT, at a press conference at Roland-Garros. "It's been a fantastic adventure. I'm super excited. We are currently in a phase where we are getting to know each other (...) We are eight months away from the Games and for now the goal is to improve on a daily basis," Noah said in a statement released by the FFT.
He has already participated in several training camps with the team's players, including Stéphane Houdet, Paralympic doubles champion in Beijing, Rio and Tokyo. "The idea of being captain came from Stéphane (...) He told me: "You've played individually, you've won the Davis Cup, the Fed Cup, but you're not a real madman, because you've never been with us." I was overwhelmed and I thought what a great idea," said the former Roland Garros winner.
Rage to Conquer
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Yannick is going to take on this challenge because he's a man of challenges, he's shown it, he's a leader of men. He still wanted to give for our federation and that's good, because he can contribute," said Gilles Moretton. "A man of challenges", now 63 years old, who has managed to meet them one by one during his brilliant career in tennis.
First of all, when he was a player, with his unforgettable crown at Roland-Garros in 1983, which remains the last Grand Slam victory by a French player.
Then when he took on the role of captain of the France men's and women's teams, transmitting a rage to win that has worked miracles several times, to the point of inheriting an image of a wizard of winning. One only had to look at the revival of Henri Leconte and the trance of Guy Forget in 1991 against the Americans Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi, to have the proof of this unique know-how that led to the Davis Cup title, a trophy that had not been lifted by the French for 59 years.
Noah did it again in 1996, with Forget as leader, supervising another generation, that of Cédric Pioline, Guillaume Raoux, Arnaud Boetsch, to win the event again in Sweden.
New challenge
Between two hits, including "Saga Africa" which also made him famous on the French music scene, he conveys an unmistakable image of a winner, which fascinates even in football. So much so that PSG called on his services as a mental trainer that same year. Its positive vibes perked up a group lacking solidarity, which went on to win the European Cup Winners' Cup.
The following year, Noah took the reins of the France women's team which he led to triumph in the Fed Cup (now Billie Jean King Cup), the first won by France, with Mary Pierce, Sandrine Testud and Nathalie Tauziat among others.
After a hiatus of several years, he returned to the role of captain, who was in charge of the men's and women's teams, and won a third Davis Cup in 2017, beating Belgium in the final.
Noah approaches the new challenge he is about to take on as "an extraordinary human adventure". She could also add a few gold medals (Paralympic) to her prestigious list of achievements at the Games, which will take place from August 28 to September 8 on the clay of Roland Garros. The same place where, four decades earlier, he had entered the history of French tennis.
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WithAFP
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- 2024 Paralympic Games
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