After the strong team at the Rio 2016 Olympics and its six medals, including two in Gold, the boxers of the French delegation are more than ever ready to win at home and promote the discipline at the heart of Roland-Garros. which will host the final stages. There is a desire and a shared vision between the competing athletes and the staff. This displayed unity suggests great challenges to be taken up.
And on May 7, it was Gilles Moretton, the President of the French Tennis Federation who recalled the pleasure of welcoming boxing which is at home at Roland Garros with a point of history and obviously “the year 1946 which saw Monsieur Marcel Cerdan enter the Parisian ring and a few years later in 1971, it was Jean-Claude Bouttier’s European Championship which was held there and which took on board all the supporters and lovers of Noble Art before returning to 1973 for a World Championship.
Precisely, it is the whole world which will have its eyes fixed on Paris next summer and it is the opportunity for a discipline which likes to challenge itself to continue its dynamic. For someone who has known all the roles and worn all the hats, high-level boxer, trainer, director of CREPS, DTN and now President, the main thing is to “make these Games a great celebration, live an exceptional experience with a competitive team and totally focused on the Olympic deadline. Boxers who have created a real collective with total confidence in the staff. Trust and work are at the heart of the system,” explains the President into the microphone.
At Roland Garros, unity is displayed and voices are expressed at the same table. Staff and athletes together. Already eight qualified and we hope for more. In total, and in the best case scenario, there are potentially 13 qualifiers who could be seen speaking out about Paris 2024. In Rio, a total of 10 athletes had won their Olympic ticket, bringing home 6 medals which brought all of France on board.
Boxing retains this capacity which cannot be taken away from it: a sport which breaks down prejudices and breaks codes, a fierce competition where everything is possible even if there are still fights to be fought. How can we forget both Brahim Asloum’s rage to win and his tears, the emotion of this Marseillaise and the Olympic medalist athlete in 2000 who will have definitively marked the century, bringing together and making all the neighborhoods of France. How can we forget the journey of Sarah Ourahmoune or the tears of Estelle Mossely on her birthday in Rio where for the first time, women qualified and performed in the tricolor Olympic colors? Force your destiny and write history. This is what our athletes are capable of achieving and transmitting as a message.
A tough and uncompromising sport, entire lives are devoted to it. The Olympic Games remain a precious holy grail to achieve which can bring to life the best and the worst. To perform together, the staff worked on a system that was as adapted and fair as possible, explains the DTN and Director of Performance, Mehdi Nichane: “As you know, since 2016, professional boxers have been authorized to compete in the Games, so the complexity was to allow both professional boxers and at the same time amateur boxers remaining in the Olympic fold to confront each other and determine the best performing athlete to go to the qualifying tournaments.
After the various continental tournaments including the European Games which took place in Krakow (in Poland) from June 21 to July 2, 2023, the world TQO in Busto Arsizo (Italy) which was held from March 3 to 11, these are in total worldwide 139 athletes including 75 women and 64 men who won the precious sesame.
Amina Zidani (-57kg), 2023 European champion and World Bronze medalist, confirms her combative and committed state of mind and her desire to win on behalf of her family and the entire team with this official announcement : “Remember the name of this team for this Olympiad: “the organized gang”, we are going to make history”.
Sofiane Oumiha, 28 years old and an extraordinary record with three World Champion titles and Olympic vice-champion at the Rio Olympics in 2016, undefeated among professionals, intends to see the Olympic adventure through to the end and find himself at Roland Garros for an Olympic champion’s medal.
There remains a possible qualifying tournament to continue to make us dream and try to win your ticket to Paris 2024 where emotions will be there. The last world TQO will be held in Thailand, in Bangkok from May 23 to June 3. Believe in it until the end and hope to push your limits to join the “organized gang” Team.
Until then, being able to accommodate 15,000 spectators at the Roland Garros center and promote the sport is a shared ambition which allows the French Boxing Federation to pursue its desire to develop sporting practice and resist the onslaught of other sports. of combat by keeping in its DNA what makes the practice nobility: dreaming, working, moving forward and writing History with champions who deserve all the credit: that of being and remaining timeless ambassadors for which sport is a universal language that allows you to grow and achieve.
