He had one last chance, on Sunday at the French Athletics Championships in Angers. But the 2012 Olympic pole vault champion and former world record holder failed to qualify for the Paris Games. Renaud Lavillenie also lost hope of being the flag bearer for the French delegation for the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games.
Published on: 06/30/2024 – 3:25 p.m.Modified on: 06/30/2024 – 3:24 p.m.
3 mn
He will not be participating in the Olympic Games for the fourth time in his career. Renaud Lavillenie absolutely had to clear the 5.82 m mark, the Olympic minimum height, on Sunday, June 30, to secure a ticket to the Stade de France in a month. He was competing in the French championships on the day of the Olympic qualification deadline. And the 37-year-old Frenchman peaked at 5.60 m, before failing three times at 5.72 m.
The five-time world medallist (from 2009 to 2017) and three-time European champion (2010, 2012 and 2014) knew since he decided to have surgery on his hamstrings in September 2023 that a race against the clock would await him on his return to competition at the end of spring, just over two months before the Olympic grand finale.
We will keep this image. ❤️
Renaud Lavillenie, Olympic champion in London 2012 with a bar of 5m97. 🥇🇫🇷@airlavillenie will unfortunately not be at @paris2024.
Thanks for everything, legend. pic.twitter.com/hEq0YJw2mN— Olympic Games (@jeuxolympiques) June 30, 2024
Accept Manage my choices
The French Championships competition was his seventh since it resumed on May 22. He approached it with two zeros in three competitions (Le Bourget and Toulouse).
Because after a rather promising return to action, with his second and third competitions completed above 5.70 m, the situation became even more difficult for Lavillenie, when his thigh started to creak while gaining momentum at the Beginning of the month.
“I’m not announcing my retirement!”
Under the sun again on Sunday afternoon, Lavillenie cleared 5.45 m on the first attempt and 5.60 m on the second, before stumbling over 5.72 m. Even for him, the challenge of climbing to 5.82 m was significant: he hasn’t climbed that high in almost two years. He cleared 5.87 m in the world final in July 2022 in Eugene (United States), when he placed fifth.
With participation in the Olympic Games for the fourth time in his career, another ambition eludes Lavillenie: that of being the flag bearer for the French delegation on the Seine, for the opening ceremony of the Paris Games on July 26.
Also read: Opening ceremony of the Olympic Games: 14 candidates for two places, who will be the flag bearers?
The double Olympic medalist (2nd in 2016 in Rio) was one of the two candidates presented by French athletics, with discus thrower Mélina Robert-Michon. The flag bearers will be known on July 12, two weeks before the start of the 2024 Olympics.
No question of retirement though. “I’m not like my comrades (Lesueur, Compaoré and Tamgho the day before, editor’s note), I’m not announcing my retirement!”, he said at the microphone of the Angevin stadium.
It was Thibaut Collet, the only French pole vaulter to have achieved the Olympic minimums, who was crowned French champion with 5.82 m. He then failed at 5.96m, a centimeter above his recent personal best.
With AFP
