France could win the most medals at its house Olympics in over a century, mainly as a result of a flawed athlete development program.
France returned from Rome in 1960 with just five medals ( 25th overall among the participating nations ) and no gold for the second time in the history of the modern Olympics. French president ( and former military officer ) Charles de Gaulle realized the country could n’t continue to suffer defeats on playing fields as a result of postwar political instability at home and decolonization occurring abroad. After all, Pierre de Coubertin, a Frenchman, co-founded the International Olympic Committee.
” If France beams internationally through its philosophers, scientists and performers”, de Gaulle reportedly said at the moment, “it may also shine through its players”.

He made sure that all school sports features were required, as well as that real learning was. At the heart of the system would be L’Institut national du sport, de l’expertise et de la performance ( INSEP), where 530 athletes now live while training in one of 28 sporting
As soon as the 1968 Olympics, the country began seeing benefits, bringing seven medals up from Mexico City.
Two years after those changes, France as a nation consistently ranks in the best 10 among gold winners, with about half of those won by INSEP sportsmen. In the last Summer Games in Tokyo, the land conquer Germany, South Korea and the United States on a per-capita base with 33 awards.
Today, they’re going for silver.
President Emmanuel Macron stated during a January attend to INSEP that he hopes the nation will finish in the top five in medals ultimately after an eighth-place effect in 2021. The organization has received funding boosts in new Olympian cycles and is still run by the country’s Ministry of Sports. French National Olympic and Sports Committee ( CNOSF ) president David Lappartient, meanwhile, has stated the country could claim 20 gold medals, doubling its 2021 collection. That would be the most since the 1900 opposition, which France likewise hosted.
France will probably need to complete its collection of sports trophies in order to get it.
Professional French football teams have been required to establish junior colleges since the 1970s. However, the Institut National du Football de Clairefontaine, tucked into trees 40 yards outside Paris, is considered the “gold standard” of national football schools. It was first broadcast in 1988 and has since produced stars like Thierry Henry and Kylian Mbappé in other countries like England, Belgium, and abroad.
More recently, France has seen victory running a related rulebook in men’s hockey. Evan Fournier and Boris Diaw both joined Tony Parker in INSEP. Victor Wembanyama also spent day at the center.
Even if the Americans remain among the heaviest friends for gold in any game, the Blue are expected to contend for a prize on the children’s side of sports.

” Children’s hockey in France has long been the No. 1 sports for women and girls to play, even if it’s not commercialized”, said sporting politics pro Lindsay Sarah Krasnoff, who is the creator of Basketball Empire: France and the Making of a Global NBA and WNBA as well as a professor at NYU’s Tisch Institute of Global Sport.
” For a very long time it was taboo for women to play soccer”, she said,” Basketball was a sport where women were always encouraged to play and participate”.
Of program, France has lately invested in its children’s sports plan to, and it is now No. 2 in the FIFA ranking.
France may also depend on its judoka force. A market activity in other countries, judo sees as many as 600, 000 members in France. Judo at the Olympics expanded to a group level in 2021, and France won the medal over number state Japan, the sport’s origin.
Teddy Riner, the country’s best-known Olympian, and Clarisse Agbegnenou, both world leaders, are expected to place in the top of their weight groups. They even represent France’s current, frequently rely on multi-ethnic athlete center. Agbegnenou was raised by her Italian relatives while Renner was born in Guadeloupe.
” They have benefited from the cosmopolitan set of ideas that when you have people who come from different cultures, different backgrounds, different parts of the world”, Krasnoff said,” That strengthens your overall ability to—not just to win—but to perform”.
It’ll get worth keeping an eye on the number world’s handball, landscaping, sailing and tennis companies as well, who contributed a combined six medals in 2021. In the swimming pool, patriots will cheer on Léon Marchand, the” French Michael Phelps”, as the 22-year-old junior at Arizona State University looks to build on a triple-gold performance in last year’s world championships with the help of Phelps ‘ former coach, Bob Bowman.
France has recently emerged as a formidable adversary in all fields, generating both world-class athletes and individual stars. Seeking to judge countries ‘ sporting achievements, Dan Thompson created greatestsportingnation.com, which considers more than 150 competitions each year to create a single ranking. France has placed second overall in each of the previous two years.
Despite France’s growing list of sporting accomplishments, though, athletes remain below other celebrities in the country’s cultural pecking order, according to Krasnoff.
” It is still not considered as important as arts, gastronomy, literature, poetry, music, dance, any of those”, she said.
Over the next two weeks, several French athletes will undoubtedly become household names in their home countries. A whole new generation of Olympians might be inspired by team victories. However, if history proves anything, it’s that ignominious defeat is what actually spurs change.