D-100 of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Where are the dreams of French athletes?

“ For France, the number of medals at the Olympics is approximately what is expected… but not always what we thought. » The maxim of Denis Masseglia, long-time president of the French National Olympic Sports Committee, makes us cautious at the time of this overview of the French’s chances of medals. 100 days before the opening ceremony, 101 of the first podiums, the place of French athletes in the world is well defined, the public is already buzzing for stars, from Teddy Riner the master to Victor Wembanyama or Félix Lebrun, the “little ones » new.

The target: the best…

“ For France, the number of medals at the Olympics is approximately what is expected… but not always what we thought. » The maxim of Denis Masseglia, long-time president of the French National Olympic Sports Committee, makes us cautious at the time of this overview of the French’s chances of medals. 100 days before the opening ceremony, 101 of the first podiums, the place of French athletes in the world is well defined, the public is already buzzing for stars, from Teddy Riner the master to Victor Wembanyama or Félix Lebrun, the “little ones » new.

The target: the top 5

If we are already vibrating and will vibrate even more from July 26 to August 11, it is also because nothing is certain. Neither the extent of the absence of the Russians (5th in the Tokyo Games table with 20 gold medals), nor, as a corollary, the ability of the Blues to take this 5th place, official goalwhich Australia, Netherlands, Italy are competing for… It requires us to win at least 16 or 17 gold medals, which would be our record in the modern era, better than Atlanta’s 15.

And what about the home effect, when the Grand Slam of judo in Paris recently, or the world track cycling championships in 2022, took cock carriers to levels rarely reached? Japan in 2021 or Great Britain in 2012 in London have made leaps forward.

Finally and above all there is the magic of each destiny. “At the Games, when it’s someone’s D-Day we can’t stop them” recalls, with stars in his eyes, Shirine Boukli, released in the first fight in Tokyo but who steals victories in titles. We will see them all, in the coming weeks, with a look alternating between the seriousness of the effort and the… Olympic flame.

Judo and fencing alone can bring a third of the French gold medals

Judo, the leading provider of French medals, can set the Games on fire from July 27 with Shirine Boukli (-48), and until August 3, as the chances of a gold medal are numerous: Clarisse Agbegnenou (-63), the heavy Teddy Riner and Romane Dicko, with the team event. Agbegnenou, gold in Tokyo, silver in Rio, reigns over his category as much as Riner, individual champion in London and Rio, team champion in Tokyo. The first won the Paris Grand Slam in February and that of Taschkent, in the process. Also doubled, Paris and Antalya, where he defeated one of his great rivals, the young Japanese Saito Tastura.

As for Dicko, 25 years old, 3rd at the 2021 Olympics, his status has changed. “I am the fight of all girls” she sums up in a pretty formula. Before there were girls in front of me, now I am world number 1 since Tokyo. There are no more easy fights. » With two gold medals in Tokyo and Rio (8 and 5 in total), the judokas are a possible vein that Boukli and Marie-Eve Gahié can nourish.

The other mine is fencing. More unstable, especially internal tears between coaches, athletes and managers, disrupted the winning machine for a time, before the suspension for doping of Ysaora Thibus, n°1 in women’s foil. And then the diamonds of the French school have just returned to the international podiums, Sara Balzer and Maxime Pianfetti (sabre), Romain Cannone and Yannick Borel (sword). Ah, the magic of the Games! A memory of Tokyo, where Cannone, an outsider touched by Holy Grace, took gold when Borel was more expected. It could be the opposite in Paris, or one, another… Individually as well as in teams, the fencers, from July 27 to August 4 at the Grand Palais, could with the judokas, if all goes well, ensure a third of the harvest record. With them, the triathlon, in the Seine at the foot of the Alexandre III bridge, the cycling disciplines are other sources of podiums. Boxing, perhaps, with the finals at Roland-Garros.

Because the overview does not end there, our file bears witness to this: glorious elders and promising young people, champions of the region, some that we did not expect or those that we did not expect. more. We wait for them, we hope for them, whether they win a medal, or almost, or whether they break down, we wait for them, their joys and their tears in the setting of the Parisian sites, Grand Palais, Arena de Bercy, the Stadium of France and its purple track, the Concorde, the Champ de Mars, the Marseille marina. We’re waiting for them, only a hundred days left!

The Games in figures