France skipper Dupont to make ‘sacrifices’ for Olympics bid

PARIS: France captain Antoine Dupont said on Monday he will have to make “sacrifices” if he is to feature for his country at next year´s Olympic Games in Paris.

Last week, it was announced he would miss the Six Nations and a chunk of the club season to focus on preparing to play seven-a-side rugby at the Games. The 27-year-old is set to join France´s sevens squad in January before World Rugby sevens circuit events in Vancouver on February 23-24 and Los Angeles on March 2-3.

“It´s been a while that discussions have been underway for me to be made available for this team,” Dupont told Canal+ after being named the Top 14´s player of the season. “We´ll have to adjust things, I won´t be able to play all the matches every weekend until the end of the season.

“Competing for an Olympic medal is really motivating. “Sacrifices will have to be made to be able to spend time with the team,” he added. Dupont, 27, collected his second player of the year award - he also won in 2021 - having helping his club Toulouse to a record-extending 22nd French championship.

The scrum-half pipped France team-mate and La Rochelle No 8 Greg Alldritt as well as Bayonne´s former Les Bleus fly-half Camille Lopez to the award during a glamorous ceremony in the French capital.

French rugby´s poster boy Dupont has played two Toulouse games since hosts France were knocked out of the Rugby World Cup by eventual winners South Africa. The men´s sevens at the Olympics will be held at the Stade de France in July, months after October´s disappointing result in the 15-a-side code in the same stadium.

Former Australia captain Michael Hooper will also be bidding for a place at the sevens tournament. Dupont´s France football counterpart, the Paris Saint-Germain superstar Kylian Mbappe is also keen to take part in the Games on home soil. San Antonio Spurs´s French basketball player Victor Wembanyama is another who has said he wants to take part in the Olympics in the city where he grew up.