FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP
Christophe Lemaître ends his athletic career, his dream of the 2024 Olympic Games gone (Photo by Christophe Le maître in July 2020)
SPORT – The end of an era. Sprinter Christophe Lemaitre, four-time European champion and Olympic and world bronze medalist in the 200m, but no longer at international level since 2018, has decided to end his career at the age of 34, caught up in a “umpteenth” injury, he explained to AFP on Thursday, June 28.
“The reasons are quite simple: it’s just that I did everything this year to participate in the Paris Games, except that I didn’t succeed, unfortunately. It’s a sign that I’m having trouble getting back to the high level and that I need to stop trying to chase performance and now think about racing simply for myself.”Lemaître explains, confirming information announced by several media outlets.
“There was yet another calf pain that appeared and that jeopardized all my chances of hoping to qualify”says the international and European multi-medal sprinter.
“At the start of the season, I told myself that everything would depend on this year, on how I would feel, on how I would progress… I saw that I was still capable of doing good quality training, but the results weren’t following.” he confided to the Team.
A reconversion project already in the pipeline
It was a calf muscle injury that dashed his last hopes – even very slim for someone whose last year at international level was in 2018 – of treading the purple track of the Stade de France with athlete’s spikes on his feet.
“Maybe it means that, ultimately, the body is no longer able to meet the demands, the constraints that I impose on it,” Lemaitre continues. “I also have to think about my body and take care of myself.”
The decision to say stop was not “very difficult to take”he says. “I took it very calmly, also because I have a plan to retrain as a sports coach. I am in total agreement with myself. » at theTeamhe adds : ” I’m going to do athletics for fun, I’m not going to bother doing high level anymore.”
One of the most beautiful pages in the history of French sprinting
Before being overtaken by repeated injuries and disappearing from the highest level, Lemaitre wrote one of the most beautiful pages in the history of French sprinting.
Two highlights have marked his career. The first, in 2010, when he was crowned triple European champion in Barcelona, in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m, at just twenty years old. The second, in 2016, on the Olympic track in Rio, when he emerged to win the bronze medal in the half-lap of the track and accompany sprint legend, Jamaican Usain Bolt, on the podium.
Between the two, the Savoyard sprinter also collected a world medal, another bronze over 200 m in 2011 in 19 sec 80 – still the French record -, and five other European medals, including a second title over 100 m in 2012, plus silver in the 200m and bronze in the 100m in 2014. His track record includes a second Olympic medal, shared with the 4x100m relay in 2012 in London.
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