The Paris 2024 Olympic Games are approaching, and with them, the preparation of Olympic athletes is intensifying day by day, to be ready to collect as many medals as possible from July 26 to August 11, 2024. We've chosen to meet a dozen French athletes, who have already qualified or will be trying to qualify during the final months before the competition, to help you discover their passion and their world! This is your chance to find out more about some of the lesser-known disciplines or those recently added to the Olympic program, and to support the athletes who have touched your heart!
For the eighth interview in this series, we set out to meet Simon Martin-Brisac, who spoke to Sortir à Paris about his sport, field field hockey, and his hopes and expectations for the Paris 2024 Games. The 31-year-old has been a member of the French national team since 2011, but took out his first license at the age of 6 with Racing Club de France!
Paris 2024: program, history, medals, field field hockey at the Olympic Games
History, records, rules, medal tracking and event schedule... Find out everything you need to know about field field hockey at the Paris 2024 Olympics! [Read more]
It's a sport played 11 against 11, with a goalkeeper and 10 outfield players. The aim is to score, to put the ball in the opponent's goal, a bit like soccer really. To do this, we play with a stick, which has a flat side and a round side, and we can only handle and touch the ball with the flat side.
There are two pools of 6 teams, so 12 teams qualify. The top 4 advance to the quarter-finals, followed by knockout matches until the final and the medal!
We know France's opponents for the field field hockey events at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games! For both men and women, they'll take place from July 27, at the Yves-du-Manoir stadium in Colombes! [Read more]
They're played at the Yves-du-Manoir Olympic stadium, a hundred-year-old stadium since 100 years ago, the 1924 Olympic Games were held in Paris, so it's a place steeped in history. It's been very well renovated, because today it's a very beautiful venue with modern facilities, and I think there are very few places in Europe like it for playing field field hockey, so it's really top for us!
The Stade Yves-du-Manoir is one of the only venues to experience two Olympics! Located in Colombes, the stadium will host the field field hockey events during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. [Read more]
The best nations in the world are Belgium, Australia, the Netherlands and Germany, but our first objective is to beat teams like Spain and South Africa, who are in our group. If we beat them, we'll be through to the quarter-finals, and that's our primary objective!
We already know we're qualified! From the moment Paris was designated host city, we knew we were going to take part, because the selection criteria are much easier to meet. That meant we knew well in advance of the other nations, so we could start our preparations early. So it's a real advantage, and we're at home, so the fans will be with us. We can also train at the Olympic Games venues, which is also an advantage!
I discovered it through my father and grandfather, who were players on the French national team! My father was captain in his day, and my grandfather was a goalkeeper, so I actually started playing field field hockey quite naturally, when my father played on Sunday mornings, and I'd go round the fields.
Some people will say it's sad, but field field hockey is my whole life and I devote a lot of time to it. Of course, I've studied and I work on the side, but I can't imagine my life without field hockey, or sport in any case. It gives me a very important balance, and the adrenalin of competition is something I think you can only find in sport.
I don't really have any sports role models, but there are some I've admired. For example, I was crazy about soccer, and Zinédine Zidane was the ultimate player for me, because he was both very strong and effective, and at the same time beautiful to look at, with an emotional, aesthetic side. So I'm not going to say that I had posters of him in my bedroom and that I thought of Zidane morning, noon and night, but it's true that it's a type of player where you say to yourself I'd love to play like him, or at least get the same sensations, have the same class on the pitch.
And yet it's a sport that's widely practiced around the world, on every continent, but it's not very well known because historically it's been more of an Anglo-Saxon sport. You'll tell me that there are many sports that are, but we haven't experienced the same democratization and media coverage. Handball players have succeeded, because in the 90s, they had very good results, the same goes for rugby, and volleyball players are in the process of carving out a niche for themselves...
Unfortunately, we don't have these results yet, and as a result, it's complicated to carve out a place for ourselves in the French media landscape. There's a historical reason and also the fact that the French teams and even the individual sports, we're very strong, so it's difficult across all these sports!
I've never tried playing it! A lot of people think there are similarities between the two, but there are more between soccer and field field hockey, because it's 11 against 11, pretty much the same pitches, the systems of play almost the same, except that we're going to play with a stick and they're going to play with their feet!
But there's really no bridge between grass and ice, there's never been a player who's gone from one to the other and played at a high level in both disciplines. It's really two different worlds, two different sports.
Yes , ice hockey is a contact sport, you're allowed to charge, I don't know the rules very well, but from what I see on TV, they're allowed to bump into each other! Field field hockey is more of an avoidance sport, you're not allowed to make contact, so sometimes there'll be shoulder-to-shoulder contact, but you're not allowed to voluntarily charge a player, so there's a big difference there!
So I didn't choose this sport because it came naturally, I didn't decide to go into it, but on the other hand, the team sport aspect is fundamental for me. It's true that when I was a kid, I'd sometimes say to my parents that I'd like to try this and that, and it was either rugby, handball or soccer. It was never tennis or swimming, it was always team sports.
I think that's the best thing about sport, sharing it with friends, trying to build a team to score a goal. Teamwork is a very important part of enjoying this sport.
I got my first license with Racing Club de France, which is based in Versailles, at the age of 6, and I've never left the club! I went through all my categories there and started playing in the first team at 15, I've spent my whole career there and I'm now the captain. I've never changed clubs, I've had offers abroad but I've always turned them down for various reasons.
Want to get hands-on with field field hockey? Find out where you can learn and play this sport in Paris and the surrounding region! [Read more]
First of all, try it! Our big problem, given that we don't get a lot of media coverage, is that young people don' t know the sport, and as I've often done initiations with them, when they try it, they like the playful side, trying to handle the ball with the stick. They quickly realize that it's quite easy!
Then, as in all sports, the notion of pleasure has to be at the heart of everything. As far as I'm concerned, I still take great pleasure in playing, even if there are a lot of sacrifices, hours of training, etc. The pleasure of being on a field hockey pitch has no equivalent!
I look forward to seeing you here at the Stade Yves-du-Manoir, and if you weren't lucky enough to get tickets, I hope you'll watch us on TV or on the Internet!
I like to go to the quays of the Seine because it's a place where you have a bit more space with the Seine, it's a bit cooler, and there are often pretty sunsets. So it's often there that I like to go with my friends in the late afternoon. It's a bit common, there's no real surprise, I'm not going to tell you anything, but it's a lot of fun!
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Our hopes at the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games: our interviews with French athletes
With the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games just around the corner, we've interviewed a dozen French athletes, so you can find out a little more about them and their sport. See you this summer to find out how many of them will qualify! [Read more]
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Paris 2024: program, history, medals, field field hockey at the Olympic Games
Paris 2024 Olympics: discover France's opponents for the field field hockey event
The Stade Yves-du-Manoir in Colombes (92), a historic Olympic venue since the 1924 Games
Field field hockey: Where can you learn and practice this sport in Paris and the Ile-de-France region?
