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

Renaud Lavillenie espère participer à ses quatrièmes Jeux Olympiques. MAXPPP – Joël PHILIPPON

In search of the Olympic minimums, Lavillenie will participate in the Grenoble meeting. There are few opportunities left for him to fulfill his last Olympic dream.   

French pole vaulter Renaud Lavillenie, still in search of the Olympic minimums, announced on Monday his participation in the Grenoble meeting on Wednesday in order to give himself an extra chance. "The rest of the program will therefore be a competition in Grenoble on Wednesday evening at the Collet family", during the "Perche des Alpes& quot;, he indicated on his Instagram account.

Strapped in the thigh, Lavillenie failed to pass the Olympic minimums on Saturday at Le Bourget, where he stopped after three missed attempts upon entering the competition at 5.60 m, far from the required 5.82 m. The 2012 Olympic champion, aged 37, was injured during his 5.70 m jump at the Pierre-Bénite meeting two weeks ago and has since suffered from an injury to his ;#39;aponeurosis at the level of the left ischio.

The last cards

If he doesn't succeed in Grenoble, the Clermontois will still have two opportunities to achieve the minimums, first on Saturday at the Toulouse meeting, < em>"before showing the last cards" according to him at the French Championships in Angers on June 30.

If successful, he will still have to be selected by the French Athletics Federation among the three French pole vaulters entered, to participate in his fourth Games. Only one other French pole vaulter, Thibaut Collet, has passed the minimums so far.

Baptiste Thiery and Robin Emig, finalists at the recent European Championships in Rome, have until June 30 to succeed in their turn. In addition to his Olympic coronation in London in 2012, the former world record holder took second place in the competition in Rio four years later and finished 8th in Tokyo in 2021.