Alexis (left) and Felix (center) Lebrun after the quarter-final of the team event against Brazil, at the Paris Olympic Games, on August 7, 2024. WANG ZHAO / AFP
At the French Table Tennis Federation (FFTT), the question is not whether or not there will be a wave of new members at the start of the school year. But how high will it be? Will it be a simple ripple or a groundswell, or even a tidal wave that will be impossible to stem?
The world of the little white ball is in turmoil. Never has such media attention flooded this sport in France. The frenzy surrounding the brothers Alexis and Félix Lebrun, the bronze medal won by the latter in the individual event and the semi-final that the Blues (the Lebruns associated with Simon Gauzy) were to play against China in the team event, Thursday morning, August 8, have given “ping” unprecedented visibility, the translation of which should soon materialize.
In many municipalities, the first two weeks of September are in fact an opportunity for clubs to recruit new players during “sports forums” and other association festivals. The 3,150 table tennis clubs in France are expecting to be particularly busy. “We risk being overwhelmed, but no one is obliged to do the impossible: it would be inconceivable to leave a single person on the side of the road, on the pretext that we could not accommodate them.”warns Gilles Erb, the president of the FFTT.
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It has 228,000 licensees to date. It had 211,000 a year ago: “The Lebrun effect was already undeniable in this progression, before the Games, emphasizes the leader. It will be even more so after the Games.” The wisest projection so far was suggesting a new jump of 25,000 additional licensees at the start of the school year. It will probably be more.
“Seeing our sport change dimension”
The “Lebrun-mania” turned out to be bigger than expected, matching the audience figures for the final for 3rd place won by Félix Lebrun on August 4, in front of 6 million viewers. “We hear that our sport has become hype, trendy, Gilles Erb can’t believe it. The fact is that it conveys a very modern image, much less institutional than before, thanks to these charismatic champions that are the Lebrun brothers and their spectacular shots that we promote via our various distribution channels.”
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Faced with the expected influx of first-time licensees, the challenge may seem simple for clubs: increase training hours in gyms and the number of supervisors (employees, volunteers, subsidized contracts, etc.). However, it is faced with tight local economic realities, which require imagination and the use of makeshift systems. In order to relieve its already fairly full slots, the Alliance Nîmes-Montpellier, the Lebrun brothers’ club (450 licensees), should therefore send its surplus of new practitioners to associations in neighboring municipalities so that they can train there, while retaining their original license.
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2024-08-08 07:01:49
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