They missed out on the Paris 2024 Olympic or Paralympic Games. Athletes who did not qualify for the Games, or were not selected, have been living through a special moment. After the disappointment of not being there, we had to quickly re-mobilize for the next deadline: Los Angeles 2028. At Insep, the elite training center for French sport, the next Olympic Games which will take place in the United States -United have become the new ultimate goal.
Since September, to help her position herself on the saltire of the Maigrot hall, Tifanny Logette has had a new clapper. New coach also for the 30-year-old para-athlete, who is visually impaired and who has changed many things in her daily life as a high-level athlete. Just a few weeks ago, the 100m and long jump specialist would not have agreed to talk about the Paris 2024 failure. “It’s a bit of a lifelong goal. Not achieving it is extremely complicated to live with, to swallow and mentally it’s not easy. I was lucky to have a friend who told me ‘you’re not going to the Games, you’re coming with me on vacation’”.
But straight away, Los Angeles 2028 became obvious for Lorraine who has never participated in the Paralympic Games.
“I got the phone call telling me I wasn’t going around 4 p.m. Around 6 p.m. I said to myself ‘well now there’s 2028’. It was almost instantaneous.”
Tifanny Logetteat franceinfo
Los Angeles, a city that already inspires 21-year-old archer Nicolas Bernardi. “It’s the States: rap, beach, a place that I like”he confides. The Niçois has had 2028 in his sights since the start of his high-level career, but Nicolas Bernardi was also able to touch Paris 2024 with his fingertips since he was a replacement this summer for the archery team which obtained the silver medal at Les Invalides.
“It was crazy to be in the stands and to be able to witness that. People asked me if I wasn’t disappointed. But already it was a French medal so I couldn’t be disappointed and they were the colleagues who had it so I shed my little tear because I saw the sacrifices they made upstream”, he remembers. Enough to gain experience and that counts when throwing yourself body and soul into this new Olympiad. “At the moment I’m doing a lot of work and my body is starting to have little pains here and there. Having experienced this in previous years, I now know how to prepare for all that and I know what Olympic preparation requires from the mental level.”
In this French archery team, Victoria Sebastian, 20 years old, has essentially the same background. She was also a substitute in Paris. The reigning French champion dreams of California in four years and although it may seem far away, the Héraultaise is already repeating the gestures, because there is not a minute to lose.
“Archery is a continuity, we work all the time to be released, to perfect our shot. We start early because there are a lot of things to do.”
Victoria Sebastianat franceinfo
Before ending their trajectory in the target, the archers’ arrows are propelled at around 250 km/h, almost half as fast as the smashes that come out of Alex Lanier’s badminton racket. At 19 years old and only two weeks after the Paris Games for which he did not qualify, the Norman became the youngest winner of a Super 750 tournament in Japan, the equivalent of the master 1000 in tennis. A success which brought him enormous visibility. “I was still pleasantly surprised to see that even the media were talking about it even though it was badminton and I tell myself that if I can consistently perform like that, there will be more light on badminton,” explains the athlete.
Having become number one in France this summer and presented as a badminton prodigy, Alex Lanier is already dreaming of a trajectory similar to that of table tennis player Félix Lebrun to further popularize his sport in France. “We don’t have a world champion, no Olympic champion, everyone knows, everyone likes, but we are a little missing the standard to really identify ourselves, as you would identify with a Félix Lebrun .” To prepare Los Angeles in 2028 where he wants to promote French badminton, Alex Lanier is aiming for a performance in Paris next August during the World Championships.
