The Paris Olympic Games (OG) are getting quite a headliner. The captain of the French rugby team (15s) and best player in the world in 2021, Antoine Dupont, will join the rugby sevens team – Olympic discipline –, with a view to preparing for the 2024 Olympics. scrum team from Toulouse will “integrate”, in January, “the group which will prepare for the Olympic Games”, announced Wednesday, November 15, the French Rugby Federation (FFR) to Agence France-Presse, confirming information from the Team.
If the formalization of his participation should only take place on Monday, 250 days before the start of the Paris Olympics, the French player, who saw his dreams of a world title shattered by the frustrating defeat in the quarter-final against the South Africa (28-29), is embarking on a new challenge on his 27th birthday.
“The digestion [of the defeat] has started and it must be evacuated. And what’s better than the club and new goals to get you started again? », declared Antoine Dupont, Saturday November 11, at the microphone of Canal, on the sidelines of his resumption with Stade Toulouse against Perpignan (43-34) in Top 14. In club, therefore, but also with the jersey of French Sevens team.
“We couldn’t ask for a better gondola head”
After several months of speculation, where without completely stating it, the scrum half of the XV of France hardly concealed his desire to participate in the Olympic meeting in France, Antoine Dupont will therefore try the adventure. “A priori, he wants to make the Olympics. With Stade Toulousain and France VII, we therefore agreed on the principle. Now, the only decision belongs to Antoine, affirmed the president of the FFR, Florian Grill, to L’Equipe, in October. If he decides, he will do the Olympics, and if he does, we could not dream of a better gondola for the FFR, rugby sevens and the Games. » The player decided, and the FFR and his club agreed to allow him to compete in the Paris Games.
If his physical characteristics and his game have everything to see him shine in this fast rugby that is the Olympic discipline, Antoine Dupont will have to integrate into a new group, learn this variation of his sport, and juggle between his Toulouse club and the gatherings of the French rugby sevens team. In order to convince the general manager of the French sevens rugby team, Christophe Reigt, and the coach, Jérôme Daret, to take him to the Olympics, he will have to ignore the next Six Nations Tournament and favor courses and tournaments with the VII of France in February and March 2024.