Paris 2024 Olympic Games: “It will be an achievement if I get there”, last chance of qualification for Renaud Lavillenie

Le champion olympique 2012 sera-t'il de la partie à Paris ? MAXPPP – MICHEL VIALA

Will he win an Olympic ticket to the Stade de France in early August on the gong ? Last chance for pole vaulter Renaud Lavillenie, Sunday at the French Athletics Championships in Angers, to invite himself to the Paris Games on the wire.

The 2012 Olympic champion and former pole vault world record holder knew since he decided to have surgery on his hamstrings last September that a race against the clock would await him upon his return to competition at the end of spring, just over two months before the Olympic grand mass.

It comes to an end on Sunday. The equation is simple for Lavillenie: if he crosses 5.82 m — the height of the Olympic minimums — he will take a decisive step towards Paris; otherwise, he will say goodbye to a fourth and probably final participation in the Olympics, at age 37.

Also read: Paris 2024 Olympic Games: "I'm in a slightly complicated situation", in search of qualification Renaud Lavillenie is not moving forward

"Never a comfortable position", it suited Saturday in Toulouse after his previous competition which ended short, his sixth since its resumption. He was unable to avoid a second zero score in three competitions (after that at Le Bourget in mid-June). "It will be an achievement if I succeed, but it will not be the first achievement of my career", estimated the multi-medalist European and global.

The situation got even worse for Lavillenie when his thigh started to creak while gaining strength at the beginning of the month, after two competitions finished at 5.70 m and 5.72 m, and promising.

Two years without climbing that high

"The last few weeks were hectic, with highs at 5.72 m, and lows with a small injury, But the time has come to put all that behind me and to plan fully on the last deadline", traces the Clermontois on social networks, determined to "to go at the end of this dream without regrets.

Also read: Paris 2024 Olympic Games: Lavillenie does not give up and will try, Wednesday in Grenoble, to qualify for the Games

"Playing everything in a single competition is a great challenge, very exciting, especially (when) returning from an important operation", he continues. Lavillenie has not risen as high as requested for almost two years. He cleared 5.87 m in the world final in Eugene (United States) in July 2022 and placed fifth.

To accompany Thibaud Collet ?

Before the Angevin competition, only one French pole vaulter achieved the Olympic minimums: Thibaut Collet, fifth at the 2023 Worlds last summer and who has just raised his personal best to 5.95 m , under the eyes of Lavillenie.

If the 5.82 m resist him on Sunday, another ambition of Lavillenie will elude him: that of being standard bearer of the French delegation on the Seine, for the ceremony of ;opening of the Paris Games on July 26.

Also read: VIDEO. Paris 2024 Olympic Games: Renard, Ngapeth, Lavillenie, Manaudou… who are the final candidates to be standard bearers for the French team ?

The 2012 Olympic champion is one of the two candidates presented by French athletics, with discus thrower Mélina Robert-Michon. The flag bearers will be known on July 12, two weeks before the start of the 2024 Olympics.