For the first time, Saturday May 4, the French field hockey teams will test, in real conditions, the Yves-du-Manoir stadium, in Colombes (Hauts-de-Seine), where the Olympic Games events will take place. (JO) in Paris from July 26 to August 11. Two friendly duels against their German counterparts, as a rehearsal before this summer’s high mass, the objective of which is already in everyone’s mind: aiming for a quarter-final.
Ambitious ? ” The logic mathematics would like us to be eliminated from the group stage », recalls Frédéric Allez, performance director at the French Hockey Federation (FFH) and coach of the men’s group. It has been more than fifty years since the Blues took part in the Olympic tournament; the last time was in 1972 in Munich (Germany). For the women’s team, it’s quite simple, it will be a first. So yes, obviously, “it would be amazing to get a quarter”summarizes attacker Yohanna Lhopital.
As host country, France had to fulfill a condition to validate its ticket: that its teams reach the world top 25 at least once since the last edition of the Olympic Games, in Japan, in 2021. This is done, and after years of disillusionment, the Tricolores will finally take part in a tournament which has so often escaped them. In selection since 2011, Viktor Lockwood remembers: “We did the qualifying tournaments, but without much hope, because we knew that we were inevitably going to come up against a big team and have complicated matches”, says the 32-year-old defender. London 2012, Rio 2016, then Tokyo, where a small goal deprived them of their dream. “You don’t know when you’re going to stop your career, if your body will hold up… Will such a chance ever come again? You never know actually. »
A change in status for men
It was also the disillusionment that pushed Frédéric Sé, ex-international and then coach of the men’s team, to cross the border and experience the Games at the head of the Spanish selection. In Brazil, as in the Japanese archipelago, Spain reached the quarter-finals, before being eliminated by the team which won Olympic gold – Argentina and Belgium respectively. He returns to France in 2021, determined to “share this experience” with the Blues.
Especially since the latter have progressed well, going from 20e world place in 2014 at 13e in 2021 – there are now 9e ; the Blues, they, 20e. “ Since 2020, we have beaten nations in the top 5 in the world, like India or Australia, who we never beat before”, underlines Viktor Lockwood. Logically, their status is no longer quite the same. “We are now considered a real outsider”insists the player.
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