Paul Jenft – France – qualified

BUDAPEST – Comments from France’s Paul Jenft after he secured a spot at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on Sunday. Jenft finished ninth in the Men’s Boulder & Lead at the OQS Budapest.

Paul Jenft – France – qualified

On not competing in the final but still qualifying for Paris 2024 after teammate Mejdi Schalck failed to overtake him in the overall OQS rankings:

“For sure the most stressful day of my life, 10 times more than the previous one. It was really hard.

“I just had to wait and stress and wait and stress. I couldn’t sleep until 2am (Saturday night). It was horrible. I woke up at 6am (and thought) ‘when is the comp?’ It was horrible.

“I made my calculations. I knew exactly what they had to do. I watched all the boulder and it was really stressful because everything was possible after the boulder. Nothing was sure.

“Mejdi and Sam (Avezou) are really, really good friends and I was just thinking that other climbers could do really good runs but not thinking about Mejdi or Sam falling.”

On the moment he knew he had the Paris spot at Schalck’s expense:

“It was really hard because for the first time I knew Mejdi was not going in the Olympics and it was a hard perspective because, for some point, it was my fault. It’s really hard to make it not possible for your friend to go to Paris.

“It’s really, really hard. We trained together for (the past) three years and that was the worst scenario that was possible.

“I don’t know why I was crying, it was the release of pressure after a long, long time. It was stressful all day, every day (in Budapest) and in one second everything stopped. It’s a strange thing.”

On what he said to Schalck after the final:

“We say nothing. We understand what happened and we had nothing to say. It’s hard for me and for him.”

On looking ahead to a home Olympic Games:

“It’s more like a plus. The hardest part of the job is done. I have to just enjoy the Olympics and see what will happen.”

On not having been able to eat since breakfast:

“Nothing since this morning, I am really hungry.”

OIS ln/lcm/rm