Thibaut Collet, “I’m going to have to live with the idea that I screwed up the Paris Games” – Libération

The French pole vaulter, who was aiming for a medal, failed to qualify this Saturday, August 3. “An injury that will remain etched in his memory forever,” as he explained after the competition.

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Eliminated this Saturday, August 3, morning in the pole vault qualification, unable to clear 5.75m while he arrived as the third best performer in the world this season (5.95m), the Frenchman Thibaut Collet gave free rein to his disappointment in the mixed zone:

“I’m ashamed of myself. I have no excuses, I got caught up in the event. They say that the Games are different, and they really are different. I didn’t think it would affect me, but I was wrong. I missed my competition, I fought from A to Z, I lived through hell, physically, nothing responded even though everything was fine. I still have trouble realizing what happened, I can be a little positive by saying that the crowd is extraordinary, we will never experience that again in our lives, a stadium full from 9 o’clock in the morning and who push us like that, it’s fabulous… And I thank all the people who believed in us, and above all I say a big sorry to them, as well as to my family and all my loved ones. I have people who have taken unpaid leave, spent a lot of money, to come, so that we can have a final like in our dreams, and now I find myself like an idiot, I am not qualified, I am fourteenth in the qualifiers, it is atrocious.

“Technically, the conditions and the facilities were perfect, the problem today was Thibaut Collet, my performance was catastrophic. I thought I would get through easily and there you go, it shows that it’s never a foregone conclusion. I said it before the competition that we had to be careful with the qualifications because I know how difficult it is, and even after warning myself, I couldn’t manage it. I have a lot of tears that will flow when I’m with my loved ones, it’s terrible, hell. There you go, it’s over, the Olympic Games are over, I’m going home, there’s nothing else to do. It’s an internal wound that will be etched forever because I’ve dreamed of these Olympic Games for so long. Now, I’m going to have to live with the idea that I screwed up the Games in Paris. My father [son coach et ex-perchiste, ndlr] managed to find the words, he said to me “that’s how it is” and I think that’s the right thing to say. You’re not going to sugarcoat it for me today. He’s very sad because he was counting on his son to experience what he couldn’t experience at the time. I didn’t succeed.”