Why athletics is weighing down France
France has still not won any medals in athletics at these Paris Games. Yet it is the sport that distributes the most (144). The causes are the lack of interest in this sport at school, the lack of resources, or even the deficit of skills and infrastructure.
With 54 medals currently, France has never won so many Olympic trinkets since the 1900 Games, already in Paris, at a time when several events were contested only by French people. The feat is all the more remarkable since athletics, the sport that distributes the most medals at the Games (144), has so far brought zero to France. Only the editions of Sydney (2000) and Berlin (1936) had finished with a zero point in athletics. Moreover, even confetti countries like Grenada (113,000 inhabitants) or Dominica (74,000 inhabitants) won a medal in athletics at this edition.
How can we explain this? The question is making the French delegation tense. “We won’t answer before the end of the Games because we believe in our athletes. There are still chances,” explained a press officer for the delegation on August 8. She discourages us from trying to ask the French athletes in the mixed zone. “Some journalists try and the athletes react badly.”
Athletics nibbled away by team sports
Annabelle Rolnin, former athlete and responsible for following athletics at the newspaper The Team since 2019, puts forward as an initial explanation the scarcity of athletics in the National Education program. “We do less and less of it,” she judges. “PE teachers no longer bring little gems to athletics clubs, like before.” A sentence shared by Laurence, a PE teacher of a colleague for thirty years in Cléry-Saint-André (Loiret), who came to encourage the French athletes at the Stade de France.
She stopped offering high jump to her students because managing the equipment was becoming “too complicated”. She hardly does any throwing anymore because the discipline is “too static, it quickly bores the students”. The infrastructure is not keeping up; the college does not have a track available. Team sports, on the contrary, work very well. They have gradually eaten into the hours of sport devoted to athletics. France is thus one of the best nations in volleyball, handball and basketball. “Athletics requires a lot of technique, therefore repetition of movements”, continues Laurence. We don’t have time to do it in middle and high school. It has to be done in clubs. But we don’t have many in France.”
Annabelle Rolnin also points out that athletics is one of the most universal sports and is therefore among the most competitive: getting a medal is not a long, quiet river. Athletics remains much more practiced than other sports such as fencing. But other elements can be put forward to understand the French shortage.
“There is a lack of resources and that is the crux of the matter,” considers Xavier, president of a Parisian basketball club who came to support French athletes. “In the United States, the best athletes receive a scholarship to study at universities and train in the best conditions.” He points out that in France, many athletes are semi-professional and keep a job on the side. Xavier believes that a young talent would be better off trying his luck in a sport like football, where the prospects of making a living from his sport are greater and the spectrum of economic success is broader. “It’s a statistic,” Xavier says.
The rare expatriate medalists
For her part, Annabelle Rolnin notes that most of our best chances for medals train elsewhere: “With a much more professional framework in other countries.” This is the case of Cyréna Samba-Mayela, a 100-meter hurdles specialist, who moved to the United States in 2023. Or Clément Ducos, who qualified for the 400m hurdles final, who also left for the other side of the Atlantic in 2022.
The French Athletics Federation has limited resources and the institution does not always have the capacity to financially support and assist French athletes. Most often, only the most potential athletes are entitled to it. The rest of the athletes have to be extra resourceful and fend for themselves. Dorian Lairi, French high jump champion, even had to open an online kitty to finance his participation in the great sporting event.
The negligence of the French Athletics Federation is also being singled out. As when two French athletes were temporarily deprived of the European Championships in June due to an administrative oversight. “If we win in volleyball, basketball or handball, it’s because we’ve had well-managed and well-structured federations for twenty years,” Xavier is convinced. “That’s how long it takes to have champions.”
