The identity of the two French flag bearers was to be revealed this Friday evening, on the France 2 news.
But early this Thursday evening, Le Parisien announced that Lyon’s Mélina Robert-Michon and Ain’s Florent Manaudou were the lucky winners. The information was confirmed by the CNOSF shortly afterwards.
Match between Lyonnaises
In the women’s category, it was a three-way match: Wendie Renard, the OL footballer, Estelle Mossely, the Lyon boxer and therefore Mélina Robert-Michon.
At almost 45 years old, the discus thrower is rewarded for her exceptional longevity, she who will participate in the Olympic Games for the 7th time. She became a pillar of French athletics and had established herself as a logical candidate to carry the flag.
“I would be proud to represent everyone. I don’t know if I’m legitimate, but I have this desire because it’s something so strong. It’s the athletes who will vote. Each athlete has their definition of a good flag bearer. It has to correspond to their desires,” she recently said.
Only experienced at the Stade de France
From Sydney 2000 to Paris 2024, she has rubbed shoulders with several generations of athletes. “I am preparing for my seventh Olympic Games but there are some for whom it will be the first and yet, we all have the same child’s perspective on this event because it is something powerful,” she explained.
Among the 90 athletes of the French Olympic athletics team, she is also the only one to have already trod the track of the Stade de France in competition, first during the 2003 World Championships and then during international meetings which were held there every year for a long time.
Manaudou was born in Villeurbanne
On the men’s side, swimmer Florent Manaudou, already the first torchbearer of the Olympic flame in Marseille, will once again be in the spotlight.
Born in Villeurbanne, he then trained in Ain at the Ambérieu-en-Bugey club before taking over the management of the Cercle des Nageurs de Marseille.
The two athletes will thus fly the colours of the Rhône and the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes region high in front of the whole world.
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