The French pair, Ronan Labar and Lucas Corvée, do not accept being ousted from the Paris Games following an error that is foreign to them. They refuse to give up on their Olympic dream.
France Télévisions – Sports Editorial
Published on 04/19/2024 8:12 p.m.
Reading time: 2 min Ronan Labar and Lucas Corvée, June 13, 2023. (XU QIN / XINHUA)
It was 7 p.m., Friday April 19, when Ronan Labar agreed to react to his grotesque situation. A few hours earlier, the International Badminton Federation (BWF) had published a press release to confirm that a calculation error made in 2023 had just been corrected.
This correction caused the modification of the world ranking and the loss, for his partner Lucas Corvée and him, of their ticket to the Olympics. Very affected, the badminton champion decided to fight. He wants “make noise” to recover the fruits of his labor.
How did you react to the press release from the International Federation?
Ronan Labar: We are disgusted, returned. The International Federation did not even send us its decision directly, which we learned about indirectly. No one tried to contact us. Their approach lacks humanity. These excuses, at the bottom of a press release, are too easy when our Olympic dream has perhaps just vanished because of him. We do not accept it and we do not accept its conclusions either.
In substance, is the classification error contestable?
It appears that the calculation error is true. The problem is that we based all our preparation, the choice of our competitions, on this erroneous ranking. We even canceled our participation in certain tournaments because we thought we had a sufficient points lead. Now it’s too late, there is no longer a tournament to play to make up for the delay after the calculation error has been corrected.
What can you do ?
With Lucas, we were stunned but we are combative. We made a series of phone calls and took advice from a lawyer. If the BWF could try to get out of this situation by granting us a duplicate invitation, everyone would win. We know it never happened but we have to believe it. We’re wishing for the best.
The French pair of Popov brothers benefit from your terrible mishap. Did you exchange?
No, because the news broke during our week of vacation when we train together every day. We didn’t try to talk to each other because there wasn’t much to say. Everyone finds themselves in a very embarrassing situation, starting with the French Federation, which supports us but for whom it would be easier to act if the damage did not benefit another French pair.
Do you still believe in your participation in the Games?
You have to, but it’s hard. The terms of the International Federation’s press release are emotionally violent and leave no door open. Five days ago, my daughter said congratulations for my participation in the Games. How am I going to tell him that I might not be there? I just ran into my parents and we didn’t know what to say to each other. This should never have happened.
2024-04-19 18:12:06
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