Bernard Amsalem, president of the French federation for athletics and vice-president of the French Olympic and sportive national committee (CNSOF), deplores France's results in athletics at the Olympics. Amsalem is considering an overhaul of the way his athletes are trained.


In athletics, the outcome was really not what we were hoping for. Our goal was four medals. We managed just one, in silver (thanks to Mahiedine Mekisshi-Benabbad in the 3,000m steeple.)

On a positive note, I will mention our nine finalists, as several of them got pretty close to the podium. I'm thinking of Mehdi Baala, who was 4/100ths of a second from third place. Ladji Doucouré also finished fourth in the 110-metres hurdles. But nine finalists, that's our achievement since Seoul 1998. We almost made it to the podium.

But we are far from our objectives. We need to rethink our training for the Olympic Games. We'll face the same adversaries in other competitions but the Olympics have something very specific about them. I've thought of some new strategies that we could implement from 2009, notably concerning training of athletes and management of the relays.

I am thinking of tightening the number of athletes selected. This time, there were 52 in athletics. We should keep only those who stand a chance of reaching the finals. In other words, we need to divide the number of athletes by two.

Another point about the relay. Certain athletes did not take part in team sports. Any athlete who wants to compete individually will also have to take part in the relay. "

Térence Joubert, French fencer who did not make the Olympic selection, was in Beijing for the Olympic Games. Although impressed by the organisation of the Games, Joubert underlines the heat and pollution-related problems in Beijing.

My best memory of these Games would be Alain Bernard's gold medal. His performance was really extraordinary. The 100m freestyle swimming is the most watched race after the 100m in athletics. It's great for France to have a champion of this stature. I was also impressed by Usain Bolt's ease. In the 100m and 4x100m categories, no one matches up to him.

As for the organisation, the Olympic Games were grandiose. They were the best. The constructions were perfect, the conditions were ideal. The Olympic Village was next to the stadium, ten minutes by bus. However, I had some difficulty in getting to the site. I couldn't go there to train the athletes.

I just have one criticism - the heat. The cycling and athletics competitions must have been difficult. One can't beat around the bush - the air in Beijing is quite polluted."

For Jade, French teacher in Shanghai, the Olympic Games were, above all, a commercial success.



My friends and I observed the medalists' reactions on the podium. The Chinese were practically all in tears. We can explain this by the sacrifices they endured to get there. They had been preparing intensely for four years, and tears were the only means of expression they could find. Sport at this level has nothing natural about it."

For Hubert Ripoll, author of the French language book "Mental des champions", (The champion's state of mind), some of France's performance anomalies stemmed from the athletes' psychological environment.

However, Great Britain, Germany, Australia, South Korea, Japan and Italy, nations comparable to France, ranked ahead of us, sometimes far ahead. Nevertheless, our training programmes are one of the best, with qualified trainers amidst a good social and material environment. So how does one explain certain counter-performances, like in judo or in athletics? I believe that the weak psychological environment of the athletes had a part to play.

One often asks me what role the psychologist has to play in competitive sports. Success cannot come without a champion's state of mind. So how does one create a champion's state of mind? First, one needs undying motivation that allows one to last in spite of numerous adversities, failures or injuries. Next, one must be able to put together mental routines that help to prepare for competitions and face them - routines which fix realistic and attainable objectives. One must tame one's stress, manage one's concentration, and learn automatic responses. But above all, the athlete must learn to be incredibly autonomous. All the winners I interviewed for my book (all Olympic or world champions) had learnt everything by themselves, without help from a psychologist.

Can this be a general statement? Can one always make it with psychological help? Definitely not. For one champion that succeeds, ho many fail? Many talented athletes have never managed to succeed. Many have been victims of their past like Marie-José Pérec or like, Franck Dumoulin have failed to perform during the games.

The psychological environment for athletes in France is not as developed as the technical, social and material environments. It's time to think of this psychological element before preparing for London 2012."