French mourn poor Games
ByReuters
Published 22/08/2004 at 14:55 GMT
Success or failure can be judged by expectation. It can also be judged according to financial support and in both cases France's performance at the Olympic judo competition could be considered nothing short of a disaster. Frederique Jossinet's opening-day silver the only medal heading for Paris.
Aside from Japan, the home of the sport, France is the nation that devotes the most money to develop judo. It has the most active participants holding a licence and hosts the biggest tournament outside the major championships.
Judo commands many column inches in mass-selling sports daily L'Equipe and is no stranger to primetime television. For many years, too, France has been one of the leading nations in terms of winning medals -- but not so in Athens.
Having won six medals, including two gold, in Sydney and five silvers at last year's world championships, expectations were as high as ever. The inquest has already begun.
"We expected five medals but we have just one. We cannot leave things in this state," said French Judo Federation president Michel Vial. "It is a defeat for us all."
"French judo has completely missed the Games. Now what do we do?" said technical director Fabien Canu. "We must analyse what has happened and know why the athletes lacked engagement and impetus. There is a will to put things right. We have to rebuild."
"Maybe we did too much to help them," he said of the judokas' failure to perform. "Maybe we don't leave them enough autonomous space; maybe they haven't been faced with difficulty often enough; to win they need to be starving."
There was something close to outright despair earlier in the week, when after three barren days coach Stephane Traineau questioned the fight, desire and heart of his athletes. "Maybe we need to turn the screws," he said on Wednesday, describing the failure as "infuriating".
The skills were there he said but the will to win lacking. "You have to be able to see red in a fight -- but to get there you have to see red in training bouts," he said.
Given time to reflect after the tournament he had started to think about how to repair damaged confidence and motivation: "I think for the next championships we have to make them dream again, give them desire and take away the complexities of the moment they step onto the mat," he said.
The inquest will run for a long time and maybe no answers will be found. But, Japan apart, France has greater resources than any other nation and greater strength in depth.
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