Frenchman Arnaud Assoumani finished fourth in the men’s T47 long jump final (amputated or similar athletes) at the Paris Para-Athletics World Championships, at the Charléty stadium, July 13, 2023. JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP
World championships at home, a “medal plaza” with Olympian airs, a French public that came in large numbers to the Charléty stadium (Paris) but no Marseillaise… When taking stock of “its” para-athletics world championships, after ten days of competition, the French team showed a frustrated face on Monday July 17th. One year before the Paralympic Games, the Blues only appear in 58th position in the table of nations, with only four bronze medals. Far, very far, from the three best delegations: China (45 medals including 16 gold), Brazil (47 medals including 14 gold) or the United States (39 medals including 10 gold). And the list of “small” countries that have done better than the Blues is too long to be cited here.
During these Worlds, France became the champion… of the “fifth places”, by accumulating no less than twelve runners-up. This makes the toll all the more bitter, as World Para Athletics, the international federation, was awarding places for the 2024 Games to the top four finishers in each event. If the Blues have done better than at the last world championships in Dubai, obtaining nine tickets for the Paralympic Games, against six in 2017, the signal remains worrying one year from the planetary event. Para-athletics alone represents more than 30% of the medals awarded.
A meager tricolor balance sheet
The tricolor balance sheet inevitably capped after the third places at length (T37, cerebral palsy) of Valentin Bertrand and Manon Genest. “France is finally organizing a major para-sporting event in Paris. One year from the Games, I want to send a strong message to my opponents: Paris is our home! », launched Timothée Adolphe before the start of the Worlds. What followed did not really prove the 400m Olympic vice-champion (T11, visually impaired) right, who was then presented as the safe bet of a rejuvenated French team.
But the “white cheetah” could not, on its own, save the French balance sheet from the doldrums. Third in a four-man final over 400m, just ahead of his compatriot Trésor Makunda, the sprinter could not hide his disappointment when, two days later, he won bronze again in the 100m – a distance where he defended his world title. : “It’s still a world medal, but we wanted to defend the title and offer a Marseillaise to the French public. We’re sorry”regretted the 2019 world champion.
Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers
“It is sure that it lacks a Marseillaise. There is frustrationacknowledges to the Monde Olivier Deniaud, assistant manager of the Blues when taking stock. It’s mixed in the results, but not in the performance: many athletes have set their personal record, two of them are breaking European records. We cannot be directly disappointed, even if we would have liked better results. » It sometimes took little for the Blues to grab a podium, like Gloria Agblemagnon, five centimeters from the “box” in the shot put (F20, intellectually disabled), or Nantenin Keita, at five hundredths of a second from third place in the 400m (T13, visually impaired).
You have 51.64% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.