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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Jon Henley

‘It’s a very strange feeling’: can the man who won Olympic gold bring glory to the Paris Games?

Tony Estanguet at the Olympic village north of Paris.
Tony Estanguet at the Olympic village north of Paris. Photograph: Yoan Valat/EPA

It has to feel pretty weird. You’re in charge of the biggest event your country’s ever organised. You have worked on it to the exclusion, basically, of everything else in your life, for very nearly a decade. And now – it’s a week away.

“It’s a very strange feeling,” confirms Tony Estanguet, head of the 2024 Olympic Games organising committee. “I come from this small town in south-west France. My sport is a very minor one. It’s been … quite a ride. But here I am. And now, well, here we all are.”

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