Antoine Brizard, discreet centerpiece of the France team

He came out of the shadows, for a tournament, at the right time. Antoine Brizard was not a starter at the start of the Tokyo Games last summer, and two weeks later, here he is with a gold medal around his neck, an essential control tower for the Blues, whose talent is hailed by all. In revealing his excellence, his spectacular gesture in the last moments of the Olympic final: the passer knowing how to pass, rather than building a classic attack as usual, takes the initiative of a “hack”, a ball suddenly knocked down with a hand deceiving his adversaries. Which offers, at 14-12, two match points for the Blues, who base on the title.

A year later, at the time of approaching a world championship which begins for the French team this Friday, August 26 against Germany (read below)Antoine Brizard obviously retains the“collective adventure” rather than his individual performance. Even if, since then, his Olympic campaign has also earned him the title of best player of the year 2021 by the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB). He always uses the “we” more readily than the “I”. Deleted, the forecastle of 1.96 m? Far from it. He can be “leader at heart”even within the Blues, but “doesn’t like to be spotlighted”. So you have to push it a little, sometimes.

A founding passage through Paris

And this is nothing new. As a kid, he didn’t go under the net with dreams of grandeur. At the age of 7, he teased the soccer ball, handled the tennis racket a little, but he lived with his parents, doctors in Poitiers, a volleyball town, which his brother already practiced. So go for volleyball. The discipline is very technical, and can seem thankless. “But when you start early, you quickly reproduce the gestures, assures the champion. I hung on, rather competitive enough, without thinking of making a career. My qualities, people have realized before me. » Here then.

At 18, he went to Paris Volleyball where he learned his skills with the Spanish international passer Guillermo Hernan. The period is not only formative. “It’s there that I meet my wife and those who are still my best friends, that I turn professional and therefore that my life takes a decisive direction”, he says. Paris still remains his favorite club. The player has also joined the club’s group of investor shareholders since the fall of 2021, as his first emotions at the very high level marked him.

After three years in Paris, however, we had to look elsewhere for more playing time to be able to progress. Head to Toulouse, between 2015 and 2017, where Antoine Brizard reveals his full potential and opens the doors of the French team. Any tricolor volleyball player who aims high having to go through a stay abroad, he packs his suitcase. It will be Poland and Warsaw for three years. Then a year in Saint Petersburg in Russia, more difficult because without his wife by his side. And, the day after the Olympic coronation, Piacenza, the club from Emilia-Romagna, in Italy. “The grail, for me the first world championship, he comments. I still have a lot of things to show, like winning a major club title, a lack in my record. »

Always in search of legitimacy

That’s how it is, Antoine Brizard. “I always wonder if I am legitimate”, he confessed after his distinction by the FIVB. So he always works harder. Spends entire hours watching matches on television. Train hard. “Volleyball is a devouring passion, yes, he assumes. It’s complicated, family and friendly. It puts the couple to the test. I make sacrifices, but my wife even more. She is my main landmark in life. »

Together, they support the infernal cadences that volleyball players, like so many other sportsmen, always take on. overloaded calendars, “I have trouble, I sufferrelease the player. But it’s like that, the spectators, no doubt, gain in the spectacular. We are resigned”. It is said without dwelling. Just a cold observation. Immediately mitigated by the prospect of Paris 2024. “I think about it every day, he insists. Defending our title at home is beautiful and it’s an incredible chance. In Tokyo, we imposed the image of an endearing team. We now have to continue. Not for the ego, but for discipline above all. » Antoine Brizard, true to himself.

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The last title to conquer

Barely three weeks after their Olympic coronation, the Blues quickly returned to earth, coming out of the knockout stages of the Euro. “We were physically and intellectually drained after the intense media wave we faced,” explains Antoine Brizard. Since then, the group has gone back to work, today under the leadership of the Italian Andrea Giani, winning their third League of Nations last July against the United States. The Worlds are a major objective. “We have long suffered from our underexposure to handball players, takes over the passer of the Blues. With the Olympic title, we have changed dimension, but we have yet to confirm. We want to win these Worlds all the more because it’s the only medal our generation is missing now. »