The French team won only four bronze medals during these world championships in athletics, before the last finals on Monday evening. What is your feeling at the time of the balance sheet? Guy Ontanon: My feelings are shared. It is a success in terms of organization but not in sporting terms. We expected much better. I had announced between five and seven medals. Finally, we got stuck at four. There were a lot of personal records, we had 36 finalists all the same, there were two European records. We won five quotas for the Games, twelve fifth places. This is not a negative balance in itself, but we will not be happy with this level. We know the areas for improvement and we will do everything to turn these fifth places into bronze, silver or even gold. We are on the right track, but there is a lot of frustration. We are here to win medals and we are not going to settle for four bronze medals. For next year we know what we have to do.
What lessons do you draw from these Worlds one year before the Paralympic Games which will take place in Paris? We have made an observation in relation to international competition. We also realize the level that our athletes have today. We have to get out of this little ivory tower in which we have placed ourselves at the level of the federation, at the level of our athletes. You have to show them that to succeed, to perform well, you actually need talent, but that you also need a lot of time and work. And today, we may not have put all these ingredients in place yet. And it will be my role to bring them into the year that will lead us to the Paralympic Games.
You mentioned a “commando phase” for the coming year before the Paralympic Games, what will be put in place to maximize the performance of the French team? When I say “commando phase”, it it is not a question of diluting the means but rather of targeting them, of redirecting them towards the athletes I was talking about earlier. These twelve fifth places: this is one of the athletes to be better targeted. And then there will always be those athletes who have been looking for the medals, those who are still in the circle and the cells of the National Sports Agency. So that will give us between 15 and 20 athletes to target well to prepare them as well as possible for these Paralympic Games.
