Like many basketball players, apart from LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Dennis Schröder who will be flag bearers, the Team of France will not have the opportunity to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games of Paris 2024since it will be in Lille, where the group stage will take place.
The Blues regret this absence but they also know that they cannot do otherwise, as they will face Brazil on Saturday afternoon (5:15 p.m.), the day after the famous parade on the Seine.
” We young people would have liked to see what the Olympic experience is really like, to be in the Village and participate in the opening ceremony, all those things… » threw Victor Wembanyama. ” But it's better to stay in Lille that day, since some conditions here are optimal for our performance. Even if we wonder what it would have been like if we were in Paris… »
” There are things we won't do, it's a shame, but we chose to be here, to be focused on basketball above all and that's a very good thing. » added on the other hand Nicolas Batum.
Pass the chickens to see Paris
Unlike Victor Wembanyama, but like Nicolas Batum, Evan Fournier has already been able to experience the Olympic Games from the inside. It was in 2021, in Tokyo, in a context that was certainly particular due to the health crisis.
However, it was not in Japan three years ago but this year in France that he feels furthest removed from this Olympic experience.
” It would be interesting to ask the other players, but at the Tokyo Olympics I really felt like I was at the Olympics. » did he react. ” In the village, there were all the athletes. Our schedule didn't allow us to go see other events. In the final, there was a grandstand full of volunteers. I really experienced the Olympics. This year, we're not going to lie, it's disappointing not to be in Paris, on the site, at the heart of the Games. We're not going to experience them like the other nations. So we have to manage to get to Paris! »
Implying, therefore, that the French team will have to do everything to reach the final phase of the 2024 Olympic Games, scheduled for Paris, in order to get closer to the heart of the event.
