Paris 2024 Olympic Games: Montpellier's Kévin Mayer leads the Athletics Blues

Kevin Mayer MAXPPP – STADION-ACTU

European 100 meter hurdles champion Cyréna Samba-Mayela and decathlon world record holder Kevin Mayer are leaders of the French athletics team at the Paris Olympic Games (26’ ;nbsp;July-August 11), according to the selection announced Sunday by the French Athletics Federation (FFA).

In total, it is a delegation of 90 French athletes (41 women, 49 men) who will have the opportunity to set foot on the purple track of the Stade de France next month but, for the first time since 1932, no man will start the 100 m, the queen race.

Among the big names, we find the recent European champion in the 100 meters hurdles, Cyréna Samba-Mayela. Rare French contender for Olympic gold since her amazing time achieved in Rome mid-June (12''31, third world performer of the year), the young 23-year-old hurler has not raced since her European title, her entourage indicating at the end of June that she had caught Covid.

🇫🇷 Dix-huitième sélection pour les Jeux Olympiques de #Paris2024 !

Découvrez les 97 nouveaux athlètes qui intègrent la délégation française en athlétisme et en gymnastique artistique. ⤵

— FranceOlympique (@FranceOlympique) July 7, 2024

Another contender for the Olympic title after two silver medals in 2016 and 2021, decathlete Kevin Mayer will participate in his fourth Olympics. The world record holder and double world champion in the discipline (2017 and 2022) qualified at the last minute by achieving the minimums in mid-June after several aborted attempts.

Mélina Robert-Michon, almost 45 years old and candidate to be one of the two standard bearers of the French delegation during the opening ceremony on the Seine on July 26, is she retained for its seventh Olympic Games.

Also read: Paris 2024 Olympic Games: Montpellier Rénelle Lamote and Nîmes Jean-Marc Pontvianne officially selected by the CNOSF

Unsurprisingly, recent European champions Gabriel Tual (800 meters) and Alice Finot (3000 meters steeplechase), as well as numerous European medalists, are also selected.

The main names of the French selection

MEN

800 mètres :Gabriel Tual

3000 meters steeplechase: Alexis Miellet

10000 meters: Yann Schrub

Triple jump: Thomas Gogois

Marathon: Morhad Amdouni

Decathlon: Kevin Mayer, Makenson Gletty Relays

4x100m Relays: Pablo Matéo, Ryan Zézé, Jeff Erius, Aymeric Priam, Dylan Vermont, Mába-Mickaël Zézé, Harold Achi-Yao Relays

Relays 4×400 meters and mixed: Gilles Biron, Téo Andant, Thomas Jordier, Muhammad Abdallah Kounta, Loïc Prevot, Fabrisio Saïdy, David Sombé, Yann Spillmann

WOMEN

100 meters: Gémima Joseph

200 meters: Gémima Joseph, Hélène Parisot

800 mètres : Anaïs Bourgoin

1500 mètres : Agathe Guillemot

100 meters hurdles: Cyréna Samba-Mayela

400 meters hurdles: Louise Maraval

3000 mètres steeple : Alice Finot

Triple jump: Ilionis Guillaume

Disc: Mélina Robert-Michon

Hammer: Rose Loga

Heptathlon: Auriana Lazraq-Khlass

4×100 meter relay: Gémima Joseph, Hélène Parisot , Chloé Gallet, Orlann Olière, Maroussia Paré, Sarah Richard-Mingas, Marie-Ange Rimlinger

Women's and mixed 4x400m relay: Louise Maraval, Shana Grebo, Amandine Brossier, Alexe Dean, Sounkamba Sylla , Diana Iscaye, Marjorie Veyssiere

In Tokyo in 2021, the French athletics team won just one Olympic medal: silver in the decathlon with Mayer.