Guillaume Burger during the European Kayak Championships in Serbia in 2018. – Copyright (c) 2018 Shutterstock. Do not use without permission.
This is the kind of mishap Olympians can have nightmares about. Several French sports personalities recently showed their support on social networks for the kayaker Guillaume Burger, after the mess of his not qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics “It is a spontaneous support, a desire to send a message of solidarity to one of ours, it seems normal to do so,” explained Astrid Guyart, fencer and co-chair of the high-level athletes commission.
What Yohann Diniz or snowboarder Marie Martinod, posted a message of support on Twitter (#soutienburger), accompanied by a pun with a hamburger as the fifth Olympic ring.
– Yohann Diniz OLY (@DinizYohann) May 24, 2021
About ten days ago, Guillaume Burger, 32, experienced a terrible disappointment. The Frenchman, after finishing second in the final in the K1 1,000m at the European Championships in Szeged (Hungary), believes he has won his entry to the Olympics. “We had written to the international federation to ask them if we were eligible to obtain a place in K1 1,000 m, and they answered us in writing that we were,” details the National Technical Director (DTN) Ludovic Royé.
The kayaker you will quickly be disappointed. The next day, the international federation withdrew the sesame, arguing an administrative error, to finally validate the ticket to the Olympic Games in the 3rd of the race, the Norwegian Lars Magne Ullvang. According to the international federation, the Blues could not claim an Olympic spot in this race. “Except they wrote us otherwise! What happened is scandalous. This news devastated us, and Guillaume was devastated, like us, ”says Ludovic Royé.
The IOC requested, perhaps to the CAS
“I do not understand. I have been sweating for 15 years and giving everything to have this selection and they tell me that I do not qualify for a simple oversight, I do not think so,” reacted Guillaume Burger on May 16 on the L’Equipo channel.
The French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF), the French Canoeing-Kayak Federation (FFCK) as well as the international federation, although guilty of this administrative error, sent a letter to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to try to solve this problem . problem asking the Norwegian and French to get their tickets to the Olympics. “For the moment, we prefer to favor this path, to ask kindness to the COI, instead of going to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ”, explains Ludovic Royé.
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