2024-09-27 08:15:26
Rugby star Antoine Dupont, Sevens Olympic champion in Paris this summer, is taking advantage of his vacation in the United States to follow an introduction to American football with the NFL team Los Angeles Chargers. The Stade Toulouse player, however, cannot imagine changing careers.
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Antoine Dupont likes to try all sports. After winning gold this summer with the French sevens rugby team during the Paris Olympic Games, the Stade Toulouse player decided to try American football during his vacation in the United States.
Expected to train with his rugby union club next week, Antoine Dupont is finishing his vacation in Los Angeles. After meeting LeBron James on Wednesday, September 25, in the City of Angels, the 27-year-old rugby player was able to taste US football in the brand new training center of the Chargers team, “The Bolt”, located in the southwest of the megalopolis.
“I first started to watch the collective training. We visited all the facilities, it’s still quite incredible, like the Americans, the locker rooms, the screens, the games room , everything is immense. Afterwards I was able to do some ‘skills’, catching balls, tackling technique, working on kicking with the ‘kicker’ Cameron Dicker too, then a little core training with the physical trainer. , he told AFP and at The Team.
“It’s the best way to spend a vacation, while being able to work too, discovering some pretty cool things. And the sport that is perhaps closest to rugby is still American football.”
Also read“A collective victory”: with Olympic gold, Dupont in the legend in all modesty
“There are still some really good guys!”
Dupont had shone in Los Angeles at the beginning of March to help the French team win the sevens rugby tournament on the world circuit, the first stone of a fabulous summer concluded by the Olympic gold medal in Paris. In the meantime, he had led Stade Toulousain to the Champions Cup – Top 14 double.
“We see the demands of the guys on a daily basis, even in the cafeteria, where there are the menus, the food supplements, the weight room, the locker room. It goes down to the choice of crampons, they put all the chances on their side, with considerable resources”, appreciated Dupont, who was able to exchange his jersey with the renowned Khalil Mack, member of the Chargers defensive team.
Although he rubs shoulders with the tough guys in rugby all year round, Dupont was impressed by the physicality of the players. “There are still some great guys!” noted the captain of the XV of France. “In rugby the players still have to run so they can’t be too heavy. There are really specific positions where it still remains quite static, so the guys are really massive.”
Could the Frenchman, who will attend the clash between the Chargers and the Kansas City Chiefs of Patrick Mahomes, winners of the Super Bowl in February, take inspiration from the Welshman Louis Rees-Zammit, international rugby union player who is trying his luck this year in the NFL?
“No, I think it’s still far from rugby, I would really have to spend a lot of time there. And honestly, I don’t even have a position in which I could project myself,” he said. evacuated.
With AFP
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