Who will have the privilege of carrying the French flag in front of a large part of the French delegation during the next opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on July 26? The mystery remains unsolved and although there are many candidates, the hypothesis of a man-woman duo still holds strong.
However, we should know a little this Wednesday about the profile of the future designated athlete(s). The French Olympic Committee will reveal the criteria allowing a choice to be made and close part of the debates. Le Parisien reveals this Wednesday the three essential conditions already allowing you to sort through the crowd of contenders.
The future flag bearer must first have already competed in the Olympic Games in the past, which excludes all rookies like Kylian Mbappé or Victor Wembanyama, the announced stars of these Olympics. Candidates must also not have been designated flag bearer during previous Games. A criterion which will immediately eliminate Teddy Riner, chosen in Rio or even Clarisse Agbegnenou and Samir Aït Saïd who had the privilege of taking their compatriots to Tokyo. Finally, a third criterion should set aside a selected few: suitors must present a clean criminal record.
According to Le Parisien, this rule is not unanimous within the sports movement. If this is maintained, it could put aside Nikola Karabatic who was sentenced to two months in prison in a sports betting case in 2016 and even Renaud Lavillenie who had a traffic accident in 2007, followed by a conviction . Earvin Ngapeth, convicted in 2016 for hitting an SNCF controller, would also remain at the dock.
Once the first sorting has been established, each federation represented at the Olympic Games will give one or two names to the CNOSF. The 550 athletes selected for the Olympic Games will then vote to elect their representative at the beginning of July.
L’Internaute and YouGov published on Tuesday the result of a survey concerning, in the eyes of the French people surveyed, who would be their ideal standard bearer. In this little game, Teddy Riner came out well in the lead by collecting nearly 27% of the votes, ahead of Kylian Mbappé (19%) and Antoine Dupont (16%). A choice of the heart, but also of notoriety concerning the footballer and the rugby player at 7 knowing that the first is not yet certain of participating and that the second will not be able to be standard bearer given that his competition will already have started and that he could play the final phase on Saturday, which hardly seems compatible with a role of standard bearer throughout the evening of Friday.
Note that Kylian Mbappé comes very far in the lead among 18-24 year olds (37% of the votes), while the judokate Clarisse Agbégnénou is the first sportswoman in the ranking, with 8% of the votes, ahead of the cyclist Pauline Ferrand-Prévost, gymnast Mélanie De Jesus Dos Santos and discus throwing specialist Mélina Robert-Michon, all three at 3%.
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