Back off to better blow up ? French decathlete Kevin Mayer, one of the best chances of a French medal for the Paris Games, announced on Wednesday that he would ultimately not participate in the event scheduled for Brisbane (Australia) this weekend, as a precaution. , and that he was pushing back his goal of Olympic qualification for the Olympics until the end of March.
“It was the first option, the most comfortable, but also the most reckless, because I came out [of the Worlds] from Budapest [at the end of August] injured,” explained the double Olympic silver medalist, from Brisbane, where he has been training for several weeks, during a videoconference.
The withdrawal of Mayer, 31, due to a painful Achilles tendon, during the decathlon at the Budapest World Championships had prevented him from achieving the Olympic minimums, in this case a total of 8,460 points.
“A little premature to do high-intensity hurdles.”
The double world decathlon champion spoke on Wednesday of the residue of discomfort in a hip tendon dating from Budapest after having “fallen badly at length”. “We did the last test [Tuesday] at the hurdles, I didn’t have any pain, but there was a lot of apprehension. Clearly, there is no huge warning,” but “it’s a little premature to do high-intensity hurdles,” he explained. “I wouldn't have been reasonable if I had done the decathlon, it would have taken another month or two, we'll give it to each other. It’s the choice of reason,” Mayer continued.
His route to Paris will take a new detour, in San Diego, California, at the end of March (21 to 23). “Frankly it’s quite comfortable to say that I have three months. And March is very early in the season, it will have no impact on the Olympics themselves. I am quite calm with this choice” rather than “rushing into the first decathlon that arrives”, he said.
His last completed decathlon dates back to July 2022 at the World Championships in Eugene (Oregon, United States), the scene of his second world champion title after 2017.
