Christophe Lemaitre, the stadium farewell – Libération

“A special moment”

Two days after announcing his international retirement, the French sprinter received an enthusiastic tribute during the French athletics championships on Saturday in Angers.

The audience at the Angers stadium is shivering, but Christophe Lemaitre has a warm heart. On this almost autumnal Saturday, June 29 at the French athletics championships, in which he hoped until the last moment to participate to try for Olympic qualification before resolving to retire, the sprinter received a tribute worthy of his career.

Excited by the retransmission on the giant screen of the greatest races of the French star of the 100 and 200m – in particular the so unexpected bronze, after years of struggle, in 2016 at the Rio Games, “his best memory” –, the spectators never stop applauding, standing. Lemaitre, planted in front of the grandstand, right in the middle of the straight line that he has made so much aflame during his career, salutes, wiggles, tangles his hands behind his back. Emotional moment, his partner, Anaïs Mougeot, and their daughter, Anna, 2 years old join him on the tartan. The craziest? The friends from his club in Aix-les-Bains are also there. “I didn’t expect it at all,” he laughed before, still emotional, paying tribute to the Savoyard coach who followed him for most of his career, Pierre Carraz, who died in 2023.

“I have trouble seeing everything, it’s crazy”

The emotion is still perceptible in the mixed zone after the ceremony: “I’m super moved. I knew I was going to experience a special moment here, I was really into the event, I felt all the emotions, reviewed everything I did during my career, it gave me a lot of joy. It also feels great to see the public, I knew he was behind me during my career so it’s also normal to salute him for everything he has done for me and for athletics in general. The athletes thrill the public, but the public thrills us too.”

Even on social networks, where messages have been pouring in since Thursday and the announcement of his retirement, including one straight from his ex-neighbor in the hallway or even on the podium Usain Bolt, on the Facebook page of the French Athletics Federation. “This is the first time that I have been in such demand on the networks. I’m having trouble seeing everything, it’s crazy,” Lemaitre was still surprised on Saturday before continuing his little tour of the kitchens, selfie here, interview there, before a detour to the athletics microphone. Well, that’s good, right at the moment when his successors are ready to do battle in the 200m heats. Pablo Matéo, titled the day before in the 100m, Ryan Zézé, who we will see in Paris in the 4x100m (and who will win the 200m final in the evening)… A promising generation, that Lemaitre rubs shoulders with at the training stadium in Nantes, but despite everything still a little green for these 2024 Olympics where no Frenchman managed to qualify over 100m – Matéo managed the minimums over 200. “There is a very good density,” reassures the now old sage of French sprinting. The 100m final yesterday was very close, it was decided by a few hundredths, even if there was no time under 10 seconds.” This famous barrier which made his international reputation fourteen years ago, when he became the first Frenchman, but also the first white sprinter, to pass under it.