“It’s true that I could say a person like Nikola Karabatic but I want to change my mind,” breathes Jackson Richardson who fulfilled this mission in Athens in 2004. “It’s not because he does not deserve it, on the contrary. I want it to be a girl from the French handball team,” crowned world champion in 2023 and gold medalist at the last Tokyo Games, he added, on the sidelines of the Canneseries festival, where he came to present the documentary series “Handball: a family story”.
Among the men, he would like to see the swimmer “Flo(rent) Manaudou or the pole vaulter Renaud Lavillenie”, who both won gold in London in 2012. The double world champion, bronze medalist in Barcelona in 92, keeps him a “grandiose” memory of the Athens Games, where he marched at the head of the French delegation after having feared this “unique” moment.
“100 days before the competition, former judoka David Douillet, flag bearer in Sydney in 2000, told me: “You are going to experience something magical,” remembered the emblem of the “Barjots” generation. “. “Afterwards, the former Minister of Sports, Guy Drut, great Olympic champion (in the 110 meter hurdles in 1976) told me: “You’re lucky. My dream would have been to be a standard bearer” “and that” further amplified the pressure,” he continued.
This year, for the first time, the four standard bearers of the 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. The names of the four elected officials should be revealed in mid-July. The opening ceremony will take place on July 26.