Mission accomplished for France’s Olympic team – Technologist

Behind the euphoria, relief. Both sentiments seemed to coexist among French sports leaders as they took stock of the Paris Games at Club France on Sunday, August 10. “We’re there,” declared David Lappartient, the president of the French National Olympic and Sports Committee, referring to France’s fifth-place medal finish, which French President Emmanuel Macron had set as a target for the French delegation.

“Almost doubling the number of medals from one Olympiad to the next is exceptional,” said Claude Onesta, the director of performance at the French National Sports Agency, on the same day. In Paris, French athletes won 64 medals, including 16 golds, compared with 33 medals, including 10 golds, at the Tokyo Games in 2021. “We can’t say it’s been a smooth ride, but little by little, our strengths have come together,” added the former coach of the French men’s handball team, referring to preparations for the Paris Games.

Did the French sports leaders imagine, even in their worst nightmares, that they would suffer the same fate as Canada in 1976 when the hosts came away from the Montreal Games with just five silver, six bronze and no gold medals? This catastrophic scenario has never been repeated since. On the contrary: The host nation is usually quite assiduous on the podium during the Olympic fortnight.

The 1980 Moscow Games, boycotted by the United States and a number of Western countries, and the 1984 Los Angeles Games, shunned by the Communist bloc, saw local athletes break all records, with 195 and 174 medals respectively. Even in less specific contexts, the harvest can be plentiful for home-based delegations, as was the case for the Chinese at the 2008 Beijing Games, who ended with first place and 100 medals.

At Seoul 1988, South Korea came fourth with 33 medals. Ditto for Australia at Sydney 2000 (58 medals). Better still, Great Britain finished third at the London Games in 2012 (64 medals), followed by Japan in Tokyo in 2021 (58 medals).

With 16 gold, 26 silver and 22 bronze medals, France has no reason to be ashamed of its performance at the world’s largest sporting event (10,500 athletes, 32 sports). But it must be remembered that Russia was represented by only 15 athletes, due to the sanctions imposed against it by the International Olympic Committee. In terms of medals, France gained three places on the previous Games, finishing in the same position as it did at the Atlanta Games in 1996, which had been the most successful for the French delegation to date.

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