Clarisse Agbégnénou criticises the rules for selecting French flag-bearers

French judoka Clarisse Agbégnénou expressed her disagreement with the rules for selecting French flag-bearers for the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games on social networking sites on Sunday 17 March. Her reaction follows the announcement by the French Olympic Committee that it has chosen to exclude candidates who have already taken on this role in the past.

Judoka Clarisse Agbégnénou was excluded from a possible bid to be flag bearer at the Paris Olympics, after having already fulfilled this role in 2021. She explained her dissatisfaction on social networks on Sunday 17 March, citing her frustration at the absence of spectators in Tokyo in 2021.

According to the rules unveiled on 13 March by the French Olympic Committee (CNOSF), candidates for flag-bearer status must, among other things, have already taken part in the competition, not have been convicted of doping, and not have already been a flag-bearer at previous editions, like Clarisse Agbégnénou in Tokyo in 2021 or Teddy Riner in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

The 31-year-old judoka and two-time Olympic champion criticised this choice, which she explained on Instagram. "Of course, I hear that other people need to be flag bearers too," she began. "I wanted to represent myself because it wasn't easy at the Tokyo Olympics," she continued, referring to an opening ceremony performed with a mask and no audience due to the global Covid-19 pandemic. "So it's still something I did half-heartedly... I feel a little bit unfinished. That's why, for me, it doesn't give us the right to get out of the way by creating new rules!"

Flag bearers elected by the French delegation

Four athletes will be chosen to take on this role at this edition of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, two women and two men. On Wednesday 13 March, the six-time world champion reacted to a poll that put her at the top of the list of favourites for the women's post. "There are the French and the figures which express a certain desire, and on the other hand there are people working backstage to impose discriminatory conditions for designating flag-bearers", she wrote on X.

On Sunday 17 March, she finally brought the debate to a close by writing: "Now it's no longer an issue". For the first time, the four flag bearers of the Olympic and Paralympic teams will be elected by their peers. The federations will each be able to put forward one male and one female candidate. The vote will then be taken by all the athletes in the French delegation. The names of the four chosen should be announced in mid-July.