They’ll be among the first to take to the field for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, even before the opening ceremony. On Wednesday, July 24, at the Stade de France stadium in Saint-Denis, the French rugby sevens team is set to take on the United States and then Uruguay. This will be their first day of an Olympic tournament for which they have made no secret of their ambitions to win.
Among them is Antoine Dupont, who has set rugby union aside for an Olympic interlude. Interviewed a week earlier in a spartan hotel room in Paris’ 15th arrondissement, the star of French and international rugby, overawed and earnest, spoke of the crazy challenge of juggling rugby variants. When asked, Dupont declined to comment on the case concerning two French national rugby union team players who have been charged with rape in Argentina.
The Games are a global event, a mythical one for all sports enthusiasts. We all have memories of the Olympics, of exceptional sporting moments. Not necessarily of sporting events we love, just a love of sport and our country, as we get involved in supporting French people in every discipline. Like so many others of my generation, I was inspired by Usain Bolt.
He was an incredible athlete – and human being – who dominated his discipline, the highlight of athletics sprinting events, for a hell of a long time. These memories still put a smile on my face, they make me love sport. I’m lucky to be part of this generation and to have been born at the right time: The Olympic Games being held in Paris only happens once every 100 years.
