“Two or three things to tell him”: a French athlete knocks out Emmanuel Macron in the middle of the Paris 2024 Olympics

Hugo Hay le mercredi 7 août 2024 au Stade de France. MAXPPP – STADION-ACTU

À quelques jours de la finale du 5 000 mètres, Hugo Hay a commenté la politique française et a également adressé un message au président de la République.

On Saturday, Hugo Hay will compete in the 5,000-meter final at the 2024 Paris Olympics. The French middle-distance runner is also known for his stances on social media, but this time, he spoke to Emmanuel Macron in an interview with the newspaper L’Humanité.

"Emmanuel Macron is out of touch"

After the Olympic victory of Teddy Riner and the French rugby 7s team, the head of state Emmanuel Macron was photographed alongside these athletes. In the interview given to the daily newspaper, the runner is asked if he wants the President to call him at the end of the competition.

“I would love to, even if I have very little chance of winning medals. I would have two or three things to say to him… Emmanuel Macron is out of touch and I have the impression that his entourage leaves him on his pedestal. I would like to tell him that these are not his Games, but those of the athletes", he replied.

"Especially since down below, there is grumbling, that we must listen to the demands for social justice, the anger of the people who deprive themselves, have trouble filling their fridges and get rebuffed when they demonstrate against the pension reform", Hugo Hay continued.

Clash during the first series

Clashes are rare in athletics. Verbal or physical. There were both during the first series of the 5,000m at the 2024 Paris Olympics. In a tense final where each athlete was trying to place themselves, the British George Mills fell, taking two other runners with him, after a collision with the Frenchman Hugo Hay.

A fall that prevented Mills from securing his ticket to qualify for the final, unlike Hay. “This guy shifted his foot and made me fall. We are in France, he is a French athlete. “I don't know what the outcome will be,” he said on Eurosport, hoping that there would be an appeal.