RTL GUEST – 2022 Olympic Games: with 14 medals, Maracineanu judges « the results satisfactory »
14 medals, including five gold. This is the balance sheet of these Winter Olympics on the French side. A balance sheet deemed « satisfactory, very correct » by the Minister of Sports Roxana Maracineanu.
Despite this record below the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang in South Korea where France had won 15 medals, Roxana Maracineanu does not want to be alarmist and prefers to underline the difficult context in which the athletes had to train: « it was difficult for these so-called ‘amateur’ sports to continue to train far from their family, far from their loved ones to keep the motivation », but prefers salute « the new generation », embodied by Quentin Fillon Maillet or Clément Noël, who « succeeded in landing a podium for the first time ».
Asked about the predominance of biathlon in the ranking of French medals, the Minister of Sports wanted to salute « Martin Fourcade who succeeded in popularizing this sport », while France has only 700 licensees. She also paid tribute to Quentin Fillon Maillet, who won five medals, including 2 gold. She believes that it is « in this transmission of French sport ».
To go even further, Roxana Maracineanu wants to strengthen the presence of biathlon among young people. She also confides that the French Ski Federation « is considering founding several small biathlon stadiums ».
Support athletes in the high-performance circle
But not only, the Minister of Sports wants take advantage of these Games to accompany « athletes who are in the high-performance circle » to become professional. And for this, the 400 athletes concerned will rreceive an income of 40,000 euros per year ».
Among these athletes are eight people from the ice sports federation, including Sébastien Lepape, the French short-tracker, eliminated in the quarter-finals confided to have « lived Games from hell ». In question: poorly adjusted skates according to him. But Roxana Maracineanu wants to help them perform at the highest level and give them « access to internships abroad ».
