Boxer Estelle Mossely, Olympic champion in 2016, would like to parade at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games on the Seine as standard bearer for the French delegation, she told the press on Wednesday. Asked whether she would parade on the Seine on the evening of July 26, the champion replied: “I will be there and I hope to be there as a standard bearer by the way,” she said. , one hundred days exactly before the Olympics during an event bringing together athletes from the French team at the ephemeral Grand Palais.
“This is what kicks off the event for us athletes, and yet I am at the start of the competition,” she said. Athletes who begin competition the day after the opening of the Olympics often do not attend the opening festivities to stay focused. Regarding the state of mind, she explained that “it intensifies, it adds the pressure it needs!” “100 days goes by very, very quickly, when you’ve trained for months, it’s nothing at all,” she said. “I want the French to see this as a party,” she pleaded.
B-boy Dany selected for breaking also expressed his enthusiasm: “I’m like a child! I remain amazed. I can only give the maximum of myself!”, said the sportsman with dyed blue hair. Mélina Robert-Michon, silver medalist discus thrower in Rio and on her way to her 7th Olympic Games, is also a candidate to be standard bearer for the French delegation. “It’s a source of pride,” she said. “It also allows me to highlight my journey, to say ‘it took me 4 Games to get a medal, but it doesn’t matter I got it anyway. So if you this time it doesn’t matter Don’t walk, don’t give up, hold on!’” she said.
This year, for the first time, the four standard bearers of the French Olympic and Paralympic teams will be elected by their peers. The federations will each be able to present one candidate. The vote will then be carried out with all the athletes of the French delegation and the names of the four elected should be revealed in mid-July before the opening ceremony on July 26. Swimmer Florent Manaudou is also a candidate, as is BMX star Joris Daudet.
