Olympic gold medal can propel Antoine Dupont to global superstar
Performing a can-can with Moulin Rouge dancers and games of pétanque are activities that border on the stereotypically French. Yet as the national men’s sevens team discovered this week, the organisers of the 2024 Olympics are not afraid to lean into the clichéd image of “French-ness” – from the use of the Eiffel Tower as a major site to getting sevens players to show off their dance moves in a team-bonding session.
And chuckling away in the middle of it all was Antoine Dupont, the 27-year-old considered to be the best rugby union player in the world.
Antoine Dupont and the rugby sevens team dancing before their first Olympic matches.#Rugby #RugbySevens #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/JNsohPmq4S
— Out Of Context Rugby (@ContextRugby) July 24, 2024
There is good reason for this early display of French showmanship with the men’s rugby sevens competition kicking off two days ahead of the opening ceremony and with the medal matches due to take place on Saturday. Be it boules, dancing or sevens, the scrum-half has looked as competitive as ever.
It is a big deal for the 52-cap scrum-half to be playing sevens. He is captain of the men’s XV and leader of the famous Toulouse club. However, on his decision, Dupont has said: “For any sports fan, the Olympics are still mythical, the Holy Grail of sport. Hosting this event in France will be an incredible celebration, and to be in with a chance of winning an Olympic medal is a highly motivating challenge.”
Dupont is one of the faces of these home Games. However, there are two strands to Dupont’s Olympic fame game: firstly within France.
Dupont has France dreaming of gold
One official close to the organisation of the Paris Games told Telegraph Sport: “Having Dupont playing for France Rugby Sevens is vital in helping the success of the Paris Olympics on a number of levels. One being that it is important to have big-name athletes wanting to be part of the Paris Games, particularly those who represent different parts of our country. Dupont is from the Pyrenees – there has historically been a sense that France is a very centralised country with Paris at the heart of everything.
“It is important to have athletes who can be faces of the Games from different parts of the country, to create a sense of unity behind the whole country, behind the Games, and it is not just about Paris. The hope is that Dupont will create a sense of belonging to the Games for people from the Southwest and rural areas.
“However, there will be more focus on Dupont now as the men’s sevens is one of the first gold medals to be awarded and Dupont is a guy with good values around diversity in French society. He has spoken out against the extreme right trying to take hold of rugby.”
There are other political issues within rugby at play. This could not be a better time for a positive news story after a controversial XVs tour of South America in June, where Melvyn Jaminet was sent home for racist comments and two players were arrested on charges of sexual assault. One cannot help but think the shifting of an open training session for the sevens men from last Wednesday to Saturday was to distance the Olympic quest for gold from the turmoil.
The recent French elections also showed division on a wider scale and Dupont’s attitudes could be why so many are keen to have him play such a prominent role in these Olympics.
During last year’s Rugby World Cup, when France came up agonisingly short in their quarter-final against South Africa, the loss was not the only pain for Dupont. The right-wing magazine Valeurs Actuelles featured him on its cover during the tournament alongside Oscar-winning actor Jean Dujardin who featured in the opening ceremony. The accompanying article described rugby as a “deep-rooted sport that has become a model for society” with its “well-behaved supporters, patriotic players and exemplary values”.
Dupont made his distaste at his association with the magazine clear. Dujardin replied via an Instagram story, in which he scribbled out the magazine’s masthead. “Yes to La France Rugby, no to your values. Please, no political co-opting,” the actor wrote. It was quickly reposted by Dupont.
In 2022 Dupont was among 50 sports personalities to add his signature to a letter calling on the French electorate to reject Marine Le Pen ahead of the second round of the presidential election. The open letter, which was also signed by Frédéric Michalak and Raphaël Ibañez, pleaded that “a vote for a party that would endanger republican values would be the worst answer” to the issues the country is facing.
Scrum-half has become rugby’s Mbappé
The source Telegraph Sport spoke to added in relation to the current political situation: “It would have been wonderful to have had Kylian Mbappé, a son of immigrants and from a Parisian banlieue, beside Dupont as French stars of the Games choosing to take part in the Olympic Games because they come from such different parts of the country. It would have created a sense of unity.”
While Dupont is mentioned in the same breath as a truly global sports star and is widely accepted as the best rugby player in the world, it can be argued that rugby union is far from being a global sport. It is yet to have a transcendent star whose fame crosses into markets where rugby is still a minority sport such as North America and Asia. There had been an assumption it would be an English speaker such as Siya Kolisi, whose stirring backstory took him from South Africa’s townships to being the Springboks’ first black captain with two Rugby World Cup titles.
Yet, the Olympic Games speaks an international language, and with the men’s sevens having that early final phase, it could be the perfect stage for Dupont to announce himself as a global star.
This is all dependent on France’s success as a team – one in which he had to earn a place in. Speaking to Telegraph Sport late last year, France sevens stalwart and team-mate Jean-Pascal Barraque said of Dupont: “It will be so good to have Antoine playing sevens with us but our group is much smaller than he is used to, we are like a family. He is a good guy and he will become a member of our family. But he will have to work hard.”
Dupont’s selection was not a certainty. The French sevens system includes a mix of centrally contracted specialists and others, such as Barraque, who are released by their Top 14 clubs, in his case Perpignan. “I already know I can do the transition because I know all the tactics and the boys,” said Barraque. “He will have to get used to the speed and how painful it is. We play games on Saturday and then wake up with so much pain in our bodies on Sunday and we have to play again.”
It would seem Dupont has become a beloved brother within the squad while withstanding the physical toll. His ambitious plan of switching between sevens and XVs for Toulouse worked. While on the sevens circuit, he won rookie of the year as France secured two wins in the SVNS world series – starting with their first leg win in 19 years and ending with a victory in the Madrid finals. Between blocks of playing sevens, he also led his club Toulouse to the Champions Cup crown and Top 14 glory.
Dupont doing what Dupont does 🤩
It's a first #HSBCSVNS try for @Dupont9A 🎉#HSBCSVNSVAN pic.twitter.com/cEHDywq6Ir— Rugby Sevens (@SVNSSeries) February 24, 2024
Dupont spoke to the issues raised by Barraque. “It’s just as enjoyable and when you see how difficult it is to play these matches, these tournaments with the physical wear and tear of the third day, the emotions are heightened, too,” he said.
“Sharing that with a smaller squad is also enjoyable. There are no cliques, everyone shares the emotions together and these are very strong moments.”
There had been some gnashing of teeth with rugby traditionalists in France at the concept of their captain skipping a Six Nations campaign, but France XVs head coach Fabien Galthie said: “Antoine’s idea of playing in the Olympics has been in the works for two years.”
Former Australia captain Michael Hooper had injury stop his route to these Olympics and he was only playing sevens. Other greats such as Bryan Habana in 2016 did not make the South Africa side, and two-time Rugby World Cup winner Sonny Bill Williams picked up an injury during the Rio Games. So the scale of Dupont’s achievement is already impressive and, if he and his “sevens family” can win a medal, it will lift him into a new stratosphere.
Dupont has taken sevens to new heights
There is also the long-time issue of the perception of sevens being XVs’ poor relation, and it is certainly the case on these shores with Great Britain men’s sevens not making the cut. However, the Irish and French have invested heavily since sevens became an Olympic sport. The Irish will have Test full-back Hugo Keenan, who made his name in sevens before becoming a key part of Andy Farrell’s side.
World Rugby chief executive Alan Gilpin said of the star’s inclusion in the France squad: “The Dupont impact is incredible. It’s provided a profile that we need to keep building.”
Back in June, on a rare break from his hectic schedule, Dupont was pictured at Roland Garros wearing a Louis Vuitton shirt in a shade matching the clay. He has always had a keen eye for fashion. But much has also been made of the Olympic medals being presented out of Louis Vuitton cases.
It would be a perfect moment not just for Dupont and his team-mates but also for the Games and rugby if France collect gold from one of those cases on Saturday.