French Politician & Retired Judoka Apologizes to World Champs Podium Athletes
Former French Minister of Sport and two-time Olympic gold medallist in judo David Douillet apologized Monday to Loic Bruni, Amaury Pierron, and Loris Vergier for remarks he made on the French podcast "Grandes Gueules du Sport" that insinuated that the three French riders only took the World Champs podium thanks to a home turf advantage.
"The thing that's weird is three French people on the podium and there I say to myself, we are in Les Gets, in France and there I say to myself, well, what are the chances? Isn't the course super well known to our friends? Isn't that what tipped the balance?" he said, translated via Google from French. "So I don't take back all the glory and the efforts and everything that has been done, but when I see three French people in a French downhill, in Les Gets on the podium of the world championships, I say to myself, maybe they had be a small advantage over others."
The athletes fired back that they'd been equally dominant around the world:
"Mr. Douillet, when you don't know anything about a sport or any subject, you refrain from judging," Bruni wrote on his Instagram. "I am a yellow belt in judo but I don't think Teddy Riner has been lucky all these years. With your career and experience, it saddens me to hear you disrespect our performance. Please stay away from our sport. The world downhill has been dominated by France for 4 years. You surely have the Olympic Games in your sights. But other sports are also exceptional and do not need your gratitude, fortunately."
"We did almost the same last year if you ever need any info don't hesitate… And it was in Switzerland… But there may have been an alliance with the Swiss you are going to tell me? 23 World Cup victories between us 3, but yes it's really suspicious these 3 guys on the podium I admit," Pierron echoed.
Monday, Douillet retracted his comments and shared an apology to the three athletes and all of mountain biking:
"I would like to apologize to our three world medalists: Loïc Bruni, Amaury Pierron and Loris Vergier," he wrote on Instagram. "As well as to all the enthusiasts of this discipline of downhill mountain biking, whom I respect. Due to lack of knowledge, my questioning remarks on the radio on the downhill in Les Gets had no basis… I was wrong. Like many French admirers of the great champions: I congratulate you on your extraordinary performance."
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As mentioned by @jamesdunford, kudos to Douillet for owning up to it.
Businesswoman otherwise. Nothing fir trans-genres yet as far as I know
It was more about an ignorant idiot , making remarks on a subject he clearly knows nothing about.
The younger generation is always sensitive, lazy, entitled, etc. etc. Your sentiment has been expressed for literally thousands of years by people like Hesiod (c. 700BC). Generational thinking is always reductive and condescending, and is a crutch for people who can't construct a cogent point.
You're also 39 and talking about "their generation" lol, Bruni is 28. You are the same generation you clown.
it’s the second belt. my eight and ten year olds have them. My 5 year old will most likely have his by the time hes 6.
Hope I don’t need to issue a formal apology for this comment
I find it rather refreshing
Also, 0% surprised about the downvotes on my previous comment. It really just cements my point.
And their fellow countryman said he was wrong. Immediately. What part of that do you have a problem with?
Not sure about the "creep" jibe either. It seems like you're on a little vendetta.
They have an established system to come up in. They have easy access to races all across Europe. They have French's support. Have you seen how many support staff get sent to support the French riders? It's insane. Their advantage is established and it's earned. No reason to get offended or try to hide from it. Everyone with a brain should be able to see it.
They DOMINATE the sport.
UK does well too.
The only way these other countries have top end people are to just truly have gifted talent. Think... Minnaar. Has there been another rider out of South Africa even close? Gwin out of the US? Any American that you think.... that guy has a shot at an overall... hell a freakin win at this point. Canada has a couple big mountains and the youth coming up there is killing it. You can think Smith for laying the groundwork there. Before him it was empty. Now you've got Finn. Goldstone and a host of others under the age of 16 coming up. Couple high quality young women too.
But when one country has 10-12 riders that can win any week and 5 that likely will... that's dominating.
We certainly don't have more Bike Parks than Canada or USA but yes those are cheaper since we have health care and as a result don't sue everyone or anyone for any slight chance to grab cash, as a results insurances for Bike Parks are not ridiculous making them cheaper. Also because we have health care and a social system our salaries are much lower so the ratio salary/bike park entry fee is probably about the same once you remove the difference in insurance cost that the bikepark need to pay.
As for attending EU races most don't as IXS is stupid expensive for us French, involves even more traveling and days off to take and imply being able to speak a second language which most of us can't.
The travel in France for racing is negligible compare to North America. Even from the south east of France, it will takes about 7/8 hours to go to Les Gets which is one of the furthest bike parks for us. It takes about 8h to drive from Vancouver to kicking horse and you're still in BC
We can't also count on our french bike federation (FFC).. Until recently they were only aware of "road bikes" and sometimes "cross country bikes"... (I did have tried to organise downhill races with official status, and they were completly lost about our discipline).
I do think that our domination comes from the fact that other disciplines (BMX race) where a beautiful lauching pad for some athletes, and some volunteers people in France are really passionate, tries to step-up the game in sports, supports the athletes like no one else, and loves what they are doing. And we have a lot of chance to have all of them in every little town to help young people to discover sports, maintain the local spots, etc...
Swiss cycling seem to be much more interested in XC than DH; which is a huge shame.
For sure we can't count on the FFC for the French domination in downhill. I will bet more about the local scene on the Cote d'azur since Vouilloz / Barel and now Bruni / Vergier. They are all from the same area. And we can count on the weather too: it's possible to ride all year long here on technical terrain.
And yes I was think of that local scene that produce so much talented riders !
@korev The swiss people are very different than the French, I spend a lot of time skiing there and even in skiing our approach is very different to yours. Ski touring is like a religion in Switzerland, both racing and casual while it has been a fringe activity in France until recently. Your ski resorts are small, same as your bike parks most only have 2 or 3 tracks, even my local bike park has more trails while being in a small mountain. But your XC scene is huge, which makes sense as in winter your people loves touring skiing. You don't get a lot of people doing a sport by having a few competing at the highest level (otherwise all French people would be kayaking and DH racing). You need to have a solid base of people involved in the sport at casual level, lower racing level to have a chance to have some top level riders. Proof is in the pudding, Est of France doesn't have any top rider since we don't have a regional DH scene anymore, the Alps no have a good regional DH scene and are now providing some talents at WC level. Riding the park alone isn't doing anything for racing, otherwise we would see a lot of Whistler guys at the top, we don't, we would have seen Alps riders (French, Swiss and Austrians) dominating long ago, we haven't either. Meanwhile Ireland is providing a few young talents thanks to a very active DH scene with pretty much no bike parks when those were kids and still very limited.
Yeah, the UK does surprisingly well but it comes and goes. What you mentioned in support network is for sure the difference. When GB almost swept the men's and women's medals at Worlds a few years back UK Cycling looked at it and said 'Job Done!' When the French started winning again a year or so later they looked it and said 'Good start, now what more can we do?'
My original account is from 2003, it got banned 100,000 hours back in 2013, by this time in 2024 i should be able to use it again!!!
Exceptional performance and on home soil absolutely fantastic for France, the French fans and the sport we all love!
Good job guy’s, don’t let this bigot even enter your thoughts he’s not worthy!
Cheers for a fantastic race!!
Ivan
I gue’ss you got me their!
Oh, wait…
I get wrong 100’s of times a day too. IMO it’s fair to ask the question, the answer is just no. Nothing to fuss about..
Sometimes, people get things wrong (myself included). And honestly, its an easy mistake to make for a casual observer, and honestly, it is sometimes a thing for other disciplines (EWS), or even other venues.
I mean, Whistler EWS is held on publicly open trails most of the time, and the EWS just ran on publicly accessibly stuff in Burke, and Fort Bills DH track is there for almost anyone to ride down whenever. So if a local/native does well in some of those sorts of situations, it is sensible to ask "maybe they've had more practice on it" or something like that.
So, no shade to the guy that got it wrong, and good for him for saying "oops, I guessed wrong".
1. some idiot said something
2. someone got offended
3. journalist loosely summarizes it in a few paragraphs with a click-baity title
4. publish
People forming opinions based on half the facts seems to be the norm these days.
He was stating the truth, however would that in this case have changed the results? Unlikely.
Regarding the French dominion.....you don't see it only because of the results. If you travel enough in Europe and take part in races, you will see the difference immediately. Not only in Bikeparks where someone can say that we are treated as customers. There are local races and series where you see the people's love for the sport. And those people are not racers. They are locals, volunteers who try to talk to you, cheer for you because they feel it.I am talking about locals from the villages around, offering local products on food stations between Enduro stages.And things like that...
Those kind of people are parents and that's how a culture is cultivated and empowered.
PS:This kind of hospitality and love i have found only in France.
You don't have to "hike to the top", the lift is there and running all summer. The track is not an official one, but you can ride most of it if you want.
Where do you get your info?
The same thing can be said about the weather or other unforeseen circumstances affecting a riders run or mental preparation. Part of being the best is overcoming and outclassing your opponent´s strengths and advantages through your own strengths.
True talent will always rise to the top and downhill racing, especially world champs, has always been about playing all of your cards right at precisely the right moment. And a little bit of luck.
guys like Gwin or Vouilloz proved this by utterly dominating the sport for a time. The same probably holds true for quite a few guys in the EWS who are always at the top, despite other fast guys having the hometown advantage.
On top of that, two of the three athletes in question have proven again and again they are more than capable of delivering performances which leave the rest of the field in awe. Bruni in particular shows an outstanding proficiency in delivering when it counts the most. Amaury is always going balls to the wall and making no prisoners in his runs. And Vergier isn´t exactly an unproven entity either.
Also, let´s take Fort William as an example. It´s a track much more accessible to the british riders and one every single one of them gathers quite a bit of actual racing experience on (not practice, but racing) over the course of their carreer due to the local race series.
For the men in the last 20 years, there´s only been 3 GBR wins. Two of which belong to Gee Atherton.
For the women, it´s 9 in 20, however, these are almost entirely comprised of Tracey Mosely and Rachel Atherton, with Tahnee Seagrave being number nine. Arguably the first two ladies were very dominant during their time and Tahnee being a frequent podium contender. The women´s field is also a lot smaller and the elite riders an even smaller group, so variance is naturally expected to be a lot smaller than in the men´s field.
I think that goes to show how little importance familiarity with the track really has or otherwise the british athletes would downright dominate the Fort William rankings. Yet funny enough, Minnaar and Pierron each did the hattrick there over the past 6 years, an achievement which would surely have been impossible if the hometown advantage gave the british athletes such a big advantage.
For arguments sake, i´d go as far as saying that the track was probably of little importance to their performance. The mental boost they got from performing infront of a french crowd likely was more influential than anything else.
I'm not having a go here, but Fort William is a long long drive for anyone in the south of the UK.
You are correct though that the national series does take in races in Fort William though yes... so some/most of the Brits will have been there more than the non-Brits... but it's still a decent distance.
Last year I rode last year's course, except some of the grassy sections.
My point is, it is easy to train on it for whoever wants to do so. Whether it gives an edge to the frenchies, I don't really think so.
It is first the process of the French pilots in the learning of the bike.
Most of the French riders start cycling with BMX Race where they learn the handling in turns and in confidence in the air and also the competition spirit. There are also great French champions in BMX Race who contribute to the motivation of young people (Thomas Allier, Joris Daudet, Sylvain André).
Then they often go through the cross-country discipline to build up their endurance and when they get bored, they quickly switch to DH.
That's why there are few Frenchmen who perform at the junior level in DH.
Imagine if you were so good at your job that your company hired a PR guy to just talk about how f*cking good you were at your job.
Now imagine that your PR guy, who acts as the official spokesman for how great you are, went out and said
MTBIZL6 isn't actually that good at his job. He was only able to skate by because this company is awesome. Pretty much anybody could have done it.
So someone said something a little bit negative that's been magnified into an outrage. And this is the first time it's ever happened on the internet.
Nobody was hurt and he made a fool of himself. Move on.
That said, it makes me appreciate Loic even more. The guy is just level headed but never backing down from a fight for what he believes in. He´s good for the sport. We need more like him. He gave the perfect response to concisely put the guy in his place without ranting or blowing it out of proportion.
England's women won the Euro's at Wembley, that was home advantage - nobody is outraged for saying that.
Ofcourse you'll have an advantage its on your home turf - tracks you've likely ridden more that riders from overseas and the home crowd! But who cares! Its all good!
It's the same for the the riders located close to other world cup tracks!
I cant imagine there are any if not many Elite riders who would think and feel that way because Mountain biking/bikers arent petty bellends ha
Unqualified comments from someone with zero skin in the game & who's completely outta touch w/ DH racing...so what, move on now.
...back to hiding under my rock hoping California doesn't catch on fire.
Move on les bleus - nothing to see here.
Looking forward to Val di Sole!
We had 3rd and 5th place riders both riding broken which is insane!
The French are dominating just now, well..... they have some of the best mountains, resorts etc to race and train on from kids.
The UK has an awesome crop of youngsters coming through too.
Was great to see "Irish Henry" do so well in 9th, a result that has been coming and he is from just a few miles down the road from me (not in Ireland).