Paris 2024 Olympic Games. “That does not give us the right to exclude us”: Agbegnenou unhappy with the rules for designating the future flag bearer which exclude her

La championne tricolore s'est encore exprimée sur le sujet. MAXPPP – Thierry Larret

Excluded from a possible candidacy as standard bearer for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games for having already carried out this mission in 2021, judoka Clarisse Agbegnenou explained her dissatisfaction on Sunday March 17, evoking in particular the frustration linked to the absence of spectators in Tokyo three years ago.

According to the rules unveiled Wednesday by the French Olympic Committee (CNOSF), contenders for the status of standard bearer must, among other things, have already participated in the competition, not have been convicted of doping, but also not not have already been standard bearer in previous editions, like Clarisse Agbegnenou in Tokyo three years ago or Teddy Riner in 2016.

A choice that the 31-year-old judoka, double Olympic champion, quickly criticized and which she returned to on Instagram on Sunday. "Of course I hear that other people need to be standard bearers too", she began.

Agbegnenou's Instagram story. Instagram screenshot

"I wanted to represent myself because it wasn't been easy at the Tokyo Olympics", she continued, recalling an opening ceremony with "a mask" and "without audience". "So it remains something that I have done half-heartedly… I feel a little taste of unfinished business", she said before concluding " that's why for me it doesn't give us the right to deviate by creating new rules..!!".

"Now this is no longer the topic"

Already on Wednesday, the six-time world champion reacted to a survey which placed her at the top of the favorites to occupy this position among women (four standard bearers in total for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, two women, two men).

"There are the French and the figures who express a certain will and on the other side people work behind the scenes to impose discriminatory conditions to designate the standard bearers. ", she wrote on p>

For the first time, the four standard bearers of the Olympic and Paralympic teams will be elected by their peers. The federations will each be able to present one candidate. The vote will then be carried out with all the athletes of the French delegation. The names of the four elected officials should be revealed in mid-July.