00:00 more on the state of French athletics one year ahead of the Olympics. I'm joined now
00:04 by French Olympic sprinter Ayodele Iquesana. Thank you so much Ayodele for speaking to
00:09 us. You're also a member of the Athletes' Commission of the French Olympic Committee,
00:14 which is a commission representing athletes. Before we get to that meeting today, how do
00:17 you explain what happened at the Worlds this year? What went wrong?
00:20 Good afternoon and thank you for the invitation. I think there's a lot of things that went
00:26 wrong. The first thing is that we have a difficulty in France with the place of sport in society
00:32 and you have a lot of athletes that need to work and train at the same time. So it's not
00:40 the best conditions to compete and to win medals in the World Championships. And I do
00:46 believe that we should seize this opportunity to bring all parties involved together, like
00:55 in the national conferences on track and field, so that athletes, the government, public authorities,
01:02 and also association representatives, volunteers, everyone, we should put everyone together
01:09 and just think about and talk about what happened if we want to succeed, not only in Paris,
01:16 but in the coming years, because I think there's multiple issues and we can't be happy with
01:24 winning only one medal ahead of the Olympics next year. And I'd like to say we shouldn't
01:31 blame the athletes because I've read a lot of things in the social media where people
01:36 were saying that athletes are not competitive enough and they didn't put enough heart in
01:45 the competition. I think it's more complicated than that.
01:49 So given that, do you think it was important to have this meeting today with the sports
01:52 minister and do you think anything will come out of it?
01:55 For the Olympics? I think it's a bit late. I think it's a bit late because the Olympics
02:01 is next year and we saw, for example, the English Athletics Federation, they worked
02:07 like eight to 10 years before the Olympics to have the results they had in London 2012.
02:13 But it's still an opportunity to think about this issue and to find solutions for the coming
02:22 years, because if we don't seize this opportunity, then there won't be any improvement and nothing
02:29 will change in the coming years in track and field.
02:31 Well, let's pick apart these societal problems in France in regard to track and field, as
02:36 you're saying, for example, kids in schools, are they active enough? Are they getting involved
02:40 in sports enough?
02:41 No, not enough. We have a study that said that in over 40 years, the teenagers that
02:49 lost one quarter of their cardiovascular capacities in France and children are practicing less
02:57 sport in school. So it's a global issue. Of course, we still need to work also on the
03:04 fact on having more sport, on doing more sport at school. And then we can maybe have more
03:12 champions. But right now, yes, there is this question and this issue also in school, where
03:18 children do not practice enough.
03:21 There's another issue that perhaps people, for example, in the United States where I'm
03:24 from might not understand, is that in France, you do not do sports that often at school.
03:30 You have to go outside of the school system to clubs to participate in sports. Does that
03:34 cause a problem, do you think?
03:35 Yes, it causes a problem when you finish, like you go into university. In the US, you
03:43 have the university and everything is organized in order to facilitate the athletes so that
03:53 they could do their sport and they can do their studies and they can do both at the
03:58 same time. And it's not difficult. In France, it's quite different. It depends on the university.
04:04 And more often, you have to go and train at the end of the day. And so you have like two
04:12 timetables. You have your studies and the sports besides. So it's not helpful. And you
04:19 have more and more athletes that just choose to continue their studies instead of continue
04:24 practicing high level sport because they don't have the time to do both. So the American
04:34 system is quite helpful. And when you finish, you finish the university, you succeed in
04:39 sport and you have a degree with you.
04:42 What about track and field compared to other sports? Are things particularly difficult
04:46 for athletics?
04:47 Yes, it's difficult because it's a non-professional sport in France, which means that we don't
04:55 have a salary. So you have those clubs with a lot of volunteers. And so you don't have
05:05 any incomes for most of the athletes. Like, for example, two members of the 4x4 relay
05:12 silver medalist in the world championships don't have any employment, which means that
05:19 they don't have a lot of incomes to pay their bills or anything. So this is an issue that
05:27 a lot of athletes are facing right now, which explains that you have a lot of athletes that
05:32 just stop practicing track and field.
05:35 Ayodele, you said you think it's a little too late for French athletics for the Olympics
05:40 next summer. But what about you personally? Are you hoping to take part?
05:43 Yes, I'm hoping to take one. I have two children, so I'm coming back from this and I'm training
05:51 to come back and I'm working at the same time. So it's not easy, but it's important for me
05:56 to be to be at the Olympics next year in Paris. And I'm doing everything that I can to be
06:03 there.
06:04 All right. Well, here's wishing you the best of luck with that. We hope we'll see you there
06:06 out on the field next summer. Thank you so much.
06:08 Thank you very much.
06:09 Ayodele Ikoessan speaking to me there, a French Olympic sprinter, also a member of the Athletics
06:14 Commission on the French Olympic Committee.
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