By
Jeremy Colin
Published on
Sep 24, 2024 at 6:24 p.m.
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What if the 2024 Paris Olympic Games allowed certain clubs to get to know a second wind ? This is particularly what we allow ourselves to believe on the side of the Raquette marmandaise.
After having enjoyed some prosperous years at the highest national level, the Marmande table tennis club has since somewhat fallen back into line. But the incredible performances of our French people during the Olympics seem to have boosted attendance at the Marmande club.
The Lebrun brothers are popular
“We actually felt that there was an effect since the start of the school year“, admits Laurent Guisset, coach at the Raquette marmandaise.
It must be said that the performances of the Lebrun brothers left no one unmoved, without forgetting Simon Gauzy, who won bronze in the team event alongside the siblings. Bronze medalist in the individual event and with a certain panache, Félix Lebrun seems to have given life to a generation of emulators.
Every time new practitioners are asked the question, the name of the Lebrun brothers comes up insistently.
Like basketball where clubs are registering registrations or Léon Marchand in swimming, it must be said that The two brothers are part of a new generation of athleteswell supervised at the family level and who master their communication brilliantly.
“Beyond their sporting performances, we see them everywhere, whether on television or especially on the internet where they enjoy a great deal of popularity. They convey a much more fun image of our activities.” We were able to see them very often in the show Popcornbroadcast on Twitch every week and viewed by tens of thousands of young people.
Attendance up 50%
As a result, they are paround 25 to 30 young people who fill the Wednesday sessions on the Raquette Marmandaise side.
“On average, this represents a 50% increase in attendance compared to last year.”
A dynamic that is also confirmed at the adult level where there are about twenty of them participating in the Monday leisure sessions while attendance is also up on the Wednesday and Friday sessions, more focused on competition. “We already have eight teams registered in the team championship, we will see in January if we will register more.”
For the Raquette marmandaise, it is indeed a question of transforming the test and retain these new practitioners who can come for both leisure and competition.
“Among the youngsters, I have the feeling that they like this competitive spirit. They are all motivated during the matches that we organize at the end of the session.”
Such an influx also required that The Marmandaise Racket is reorganizingAlthough employed by the club, Laurent Guisset’s experience and qualifications are no longer sufficient to supervise all these wonderful people.
“Volunteers do indeed come to help me and there is also the problem of equipment. We have added three tables but we would need three more. Without that, there have to be four players on the same table, which is not ideal.”
Rich people’s problems that could well materialize the wish granted by the director of Paris 2024, Tony Estanguetwho wanted to see the French take up sport en masse after these Olympic Games.
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