Ping Pong Interview : Clément Sanchez (BSB'22) vs Yannick Rannou (BSB'08)

Paris 2024 will feature forty-five sports, including four new ones: sport climbing, breaking, skateboarding and surfing. The world's top specialists will compete in each discipline.  But what happens if you ask two cyclists to give up their handlebars for a ping-pong racket?   

Yannick Rannou (BSB'08), Senior Mountain Bike Project Manager, and Clément Sanchez (BSB'22), event coordinator for some of the cycling events, start a match. 

Your first pedal strokes...

 Yannick Rannou: "Mountain biking in the Jura, inspired by nature and stimulated by my parents, who were very sporty themselves. Which led me to the French team in the 2000s. And second place in the Hannibal raid with the ESC Dijon team.

Clément Sanchez: "I do a lot of road cycling. But I'm passionate about sport in general. For example, I have incredible memories of the Canaris' victory in the Coupe de France 2022."

Your mission at Paris 2024...

Clément Sanchez: "I coordinate the hosting of events on the sites and the organization of track cycling, BMX Racing and Mountain Bike competitions.

Yannick Rannou: "As part of the sports department at Paris 2024, I manage technical operations on the mountain bike track and in the sports areas. I liaise with the national teams, the international federation, technical partners and our volunteers."

Difficult passages...

Yannick Rannou: "We started from scratch. We had to develop the hill of Élancourt, a former quarry, in order to lay out a top-level course and combine technical and user-friendly areas to Olympic standards."

Clément Sanchez: "The multitude of contacts. Coordinating is a full-time ordeal when you have to deal with the federations, the construction teams, the teams attached to each of the sites, legal, finance, sustainable development and even the fans."

Entering the light...

Clément Sanchez: "The spaces are scheduled for delivery in mid-July. Beforehand, we were lucky enough to be able to test the BMX and MTB in real conditions, even with a reduced gauge for the MTB. The feedback has been very good.

Yannick Rannou: "At the end of September we organized a full-scale Test Event with the world's best athletes and spectators to test various parameters. A valuable experience with a view to the Games. 

Behind the scenes of the feat...

Yannick Rannou: "All the cursors are pushed to the maximum. It's really a unique experience. There's no room for improvisation. The athletes are also under a lot of pressure. It's often the race of a lifetime. 

Clément Sanchez: "The number of specialists and experts who scrutinize every detail. It's a daily reminder of just how extraordinary an event the Olympic Games are."  

The most bluffing...

Clément Sanchez: "The brevity of the race compared to the three years of preparation. It's three years of painstaking work for three hours of racing."

Yannick Rannou: "If we move away from mountain biking, I find that the performances of Paralympic athletes are breathtaking too. An immense lesson in humility."

Cycling or not, what are your predictions?

Clément Sanchez: "Léon Marchand (swimming) and Armand Duplantis (pole vault) win thanks to their immense mastery of their subject. The French judokas swept all before them, and the Lebrun brothers (ping-pong) came out on top."

Yannick Rannou: "We're back to mountain biking. Victor Koretzky wins. A tightrope walker on his bike. And, of course, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot in the girls' category!"

Yannick Rannou (white t-shirt) with Victor Koretzky (VTT Cross Country French Team) and Tony Estanguet.