EDITORIAL: Everyone behind Erika Sauzeau!

The day after the announcement of the non-selection of Erika Sauzeau for the Paris Paralympic Games, Lionel Herbet signed an editorial in support of the Amiens rower.

We obviously read and appreciated the editorial by our friend Léandre Leber. He spoke his heart and we feel the esteem he has for Erika Sauzeau who will not participate in the next Paralympic Games. She who in Tokyo, three years ago, had been a medalist.

Since then, Erika had fulfilled her role as ambassador wonderfully and no one else but her has been at the service of the Somme 24 club by responding to all the requests she was the subject of. Erika Sauzeau did not know how to say no and wherever she was invited she showed up without ever complaining. To be clear, the rumor had been circulating for several weeks: Erika might not be selected because as strange as it may seem, in this discipline, it is first of all the boat that obtained its qualification for the Games. Then, it was up to the French Rowing Federation to select its representatives for these Games. And to be clear, Erika Sauzeau was no longer in the good books of this French Rowing Federation.

A week ago in the Maison des Sports in Amiens, Erika came to attend the conference on the mentality of the athlete. At the end of the meeting, Erika spoke and we retained a sentence which says a lot about the functioning of the French Rowing Federation. A federal executive directly told him: “Either bend or break.” » An unspeakable attitude and we understand with Erika Sauzeau’s disappointment, resentment and feeling of injustice. The world being what it is, we will soon see if Erika Sauzeau can still rely on and count on all those who claimed to be her friends and who today will be indifferent. Here at Gazette Sports, let Erika Sauzeau know that we are behind her.