The six French Olympians deciphered by national technical director Benoît Binon

Since his appointment as France’s National Technical Director in 2017, Benoît Binon’s role has been to implement the federal project in all areas: training, development, sporting life...

As well as the high-level.

At the French archery federation, the national technical director also acts as performance director. 

“I’ve supported the whole Olympic project, from A to Z,” he said.

It was he who took the decision to bring Korean coach Oh Seon Tek on board in 2022, at a time when French archery was struggling for results.

“Never again will a [French] national technical director prepare for the Olympic Games on home soil, for I don’t know how many decades.”

“It’s been exciting.”

As the event he has been preparing for three years is to finally begin, the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Benoît Binon presents to us, in his own words, the six archers who will fly the flag for France on the Esplanade des Invalides.

Lisa Barbelin

For me, Lisa is all about energy.

She actually puts a lot of dynamism into everything she does; the challenge for her now is to channel that energy. If she manages to put it in the right place, she’s capable of doing some very good things, as she showed in Paris last year with her silver medal in the Archery World Cup.

I think she’s mentally structured to be a true champion. She gives herself the means to do so, and tries to invest all sorts of elements in her shooting to prepare herself as well as possible. Now, with her experience, she has a clear vision of what an objective is on D-Day.

Of course, to enter this category of great champions, she will have to build up a track record at world championships, Olympic Games.

In any case, in the approach, the attitude, she’s there. She just needs to raise her performance level a little further so as not to have to draw on her reserves each time, because that’s something you can’t do all the time, every day.

She’s working for it. She’ll be one of the women fighting for a medal at the Games. 

Amélie Cordeau

I think Amélie is someone capable of surpassing her own expectations, of going after great things in individuals.

She is passionate, she comes from a family of archery enthusiasts, with her father, mother and uncle...

She’s someone who doesn’t have the same approach as the others. She has this ability to find the right arrows in complicated match situations.

She’s a match girl, she loves it. In the youth categories, she was much more successful in matches.

She is able to commit herself fully and completely.

Caroline Lopez

She is this somewhat ‘quiet force’.

Caroline is a very determined person, who doesn’t necessarily show it, but who is very strong-willed.

Once again, the medals she won in the U18 and U21 categories were not by chance.

I also think that in a team, she is an archer who brings a lot of serenity.

She’s fairly consistent, she has a well-constructed, consistent shot that brings calm and confidence to the team.

Baptiste Addis

He is a guarantor of the 'carefreeness' we need.

Baptiste is a very talented young man, he’s just arrived in the French team and he’s been doing some great things, but still obviously lacks consistency. He has to accept that everything is not always easy.

I think he sometimes exacerbates himself. On the emotional scale, he can go from euphoria to frustration in a short space of time, so that’s what he needs to channel. But that’s normal, it’s the age, the experience that he still has to acquire.

It is in the profiles of these people who have pure talent. He reminds us a little of Mete Gazoz a few years ago, when he was competing in his first Games. He’s a raw talent that needs to be built up, channelled.

But he must also keep that carefree attitude, so that he can arrive at the Games with that freshness, because if he has that, then anything is possible.

Thomas Chirault

Thomas is the Cartesian.

Everything has to be clearly laid out, he has to understand why, how, etc. This is sometimes a quality because it allows him to structure things, organise himself. He’s got this academic side, everything is channelled.

After that, he perhaps sometimes lacks a little bit of ‘letting go’, which is also important in high-level sport. At some point, you can’t always objectify everything, not everything is predictable, you have to be able to go and find that little emotional thing. If he can do that... He’s an archer who can be very precise.

He has to accept that, sometimes, the conditions are more difficult, that his sensations are not as good.

If he manages to broaden his spectrum, to take the good sides of his personality and accept the more instinctive side, he can really take a big step forward.

Jean-Charles Valladont

After his success in Rio, Jean-Charles went from strength to strength in 2017, riding on his confidence, but then he got lost, and the following years were tough. I think he’d put out the flame a little, he’d lost a lot of things.

With the arrival of Oh, he started to question himself. I think that today he is back to a level that he has rarely had, maybe never.

A lot of things have been said about him, in any case, I think he’s back to being a top-level athlete.

Perhaps he was focused more on his lifestyle, which was very peaceful, connected to nature. He’s still got that, but he also understood that to succeed in Paris, he had to get back to being a top-level athlete, and that’s what he did. This side of Jean-Charles is really very interesting.

So what can we say about him? Will he manage to recapture the success he had in the past? Are we going to have a Jean-Charles in phoenix mode?

It belongs to him.