Paris 2024 Olympic Games: Mbappé, Wembanyama, Marchand, Mayer: six months before the Games, where are the French stars ?

À six mois des Jeux, où en sont les stars françaises ? MAXPPP – Alexis Sciard

Léon Marchand for his first Games, Teddy Rinner for a historic hat-trick, the handball players of the French team… Review of the French stars expected six months before the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Léon Marchand shines in swimming

After several gloomy years, French swimming can once again shine at the Paris Olympics thanks to superstar Léon Marchand, who last summer became the most successful Frenchman at the Worlds.

World champion in 2023 in the 400m medley, 200m butterfly and 200m medley, at the age of 21 he has five world titles (including two won in 2022).

Leon Marchand. MAXPPP – Kyodo

He will also be able to count on a solid French team, which despite its absence won 23 medals during the European short course championships in December, including the titles in the main races: the 100 m freestyle for men with Maxime Grousset and women with Béryl Gastaldello.

Teddy Riner and Clarisse Agbegnenou to make history

The most successful Judoka in the history of his sport, Teddy Riner will be 35 years old during the 2024 Olympics but in Paris is aiming for a third individual Olympic title in +100 kg, a feat until -there only achieved in lightweight by the Japanese Tadahiro Nomura (1996, 2000 and 2004).

Riner, 11 times world champion, returned to competition -and to victory- in December in Belgrade after more than six months of absence.

Le retour du taulier : Teddy Riner est 5e de notre classement des sportifs français qui ont marqué 2023 ! pic.twitter.com/Xs2jnDOXrS

— Eurosport France (@Eurosport_FR) December 27, 2023

French judo, which aims to be the leading provider of medals in Paris, will also be able to count, among others, on the five-time world champion Clarisse Agbegnenou (-63 kg), standard bearer in Tokyo in 2021 where she was doubly titled, or the bronze medalist in Tokyo Romane Dicko (+78 kg).

Kévin Mayer towards a first Olympic title ?

The decathlon world record holder (9,126 points in 2018) has not yet qualified for the Games but intends to win his first Olympic title in Paris, having been a two-time Olympic medalist ;#39;silver (2016 and 2021).

Already a double world champion, Kévin Mayer is one of the rare hopes of victory for the French athletics team, which is struggling to distinguish itself at the level international.

Kevin Mayer. MAXPPP – IMAGO/BEAUTIFUL SPORTS/Axel Kohring

But Mayer has not yet achieved the minimums: he had planned to do a decathlon in Australia in December but ultimately postponed the deadline until the end of March.

His last decathlon completed -and won- dates back to July 2022 at the World Championships in Eugene in the United States. He retired from the World Championships in Budapest in 2023, suffering from a painful Achilles tendon.

Kylian Mbappé dreams of the Olympic Games

Kylian Mbappé has already made it known that he dreams of wearing the blue jersey at the Olympics, especially in Paris. For him "it's a childhood dream" and he "spoke about it in the outlines of the contract with" Paris Saint-Germain when he negotiated to extend until 2024.

A perspective however difficult to reconcile with its overloaded schedule, shared between the France A team, which will leave Euro-2024 and whose final will be played on July 14, and the resumption of the championships.

🔥 @kmbappe aux JO @Paris2024 ?

📺⏯ https://t.co/Aax9sDvDAF #EnvoyéSpécial #Mbappé @kmbappe @EliseLucet pic.twitter.com/A7RMga8Zr6

— Envoyé spécial (@EnvoyeSpecial) January 18, 2024

Teams at the men's Olympic football games are reserved almost exclusively for players aged 23 or under.

But Mbappé, 25 years old during the Paris Olympics, can be one of the three exceptions authorized by team in the age criteria.

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot aims for a first Olympic title

Five-time world champion in cross-country mountain biking, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot never stops writing the history of her sport of which she is the main candidate to gold at the Olympics.

"PFP", fifteen world champion titles in all disciplines (mountain biking, road, gravel and cyclo-cross), will aim for her first Olympic title in Paris.

She has always been cursed at the Olympics: 26th in London in 2012, she gave up four years later in Rio, before finishing only 10th in Tokyo.

#TLS 🥇🥈 En VTT féminin, c'est la France qui domine ! Lors de la course des Championnats du monde 2023 de Glasgow, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot et Loana Lecomte ont réalisé un superbe doublé 🌈

🔜 Les Jeux olympiques de Paris 2024, seul événement où elles n'ont pas de médaille pic.twitter.com/DeECD9sWwa

— francetvsport (@francetvsport) August 12, 2023

Another great French hope, Loana Lecomte will also have her card to play. The vice-world champion won the test event of the Olympic cyclo-cross event in Yvelines in December.

Victor Wembanyama at home

French basketball prodigy Victor Wembanyama should be one of the stars of the Paris Games, where he is eagerly awaited to help the Blues win a new Olympic medal after the Olympic Games. silver obtained in Tokyo in 2021.

"Wemby", whose popularity has exploded in 2023, is in his first season in the NBA with the San Antonio Spurs and received a star welcome on the court.

In France, the 20-year-old giant (2.24m) is eagerly awaited to turn around a French team eliminated in the first round of the 2023 World Cup played in South-East Asia, particularly in the event of a clash with the States. -United who are preparing a "Dream team" led by LeBron James.

Also read: What if Wembanyama played at the Sud de France Arena in Montpellier on July 8 ? Reserve your seats!

Especially since in Tokyo, the Blues failed in the final against the Americans.

In handball, Les Bleues for the double

Covered in gold at the World Cup in December after a perfect run, the French handball players are logically aiming for the Olympic title in Paris.

The handball Blues will aim for the double. MAXPPP – Claus Fisker

Twenty years after their first global coronation and a year and a half after the Olympic title won in Tokyo, the Bleues have placed France a little further at the top of handball, where they had reigned until now the Norwegians, winning the World Cup.

They can rely on a very homogeneous group. At the World Cup, almost every player was able to make their contribution.