POC sets 2-month France training for 2024 Filipino Olympians

MANILA, Philippines – All Filipino qualifiers to next year’s Paris Olympics will get to train in Metz, France for two months prior to the quadrennial games.

Philippine Olympic Committee president Abraham Tolentino made this possible after he recently forged a partnership with the city located east from the French capital.

“We in the POC are making sure our qualified athletes are well prepared and acclimatized for the Paris Olympics,” said the mayor from Tagaytay, who signed a pact with La Moselle president Patrick Welten.

The memorandum includes the use of sports facilities as well as food and accommodation.

“The qualified athletes will train here for two months before the Olympics open,” said the PhilCycling chief.

Metz is 330.9 kilometers from Paris that can be accessed by land travel in three and a half hours or via train in less than an hour and a half.

More importantly, the place boasts of an environment best suited for the athletes as it has a 3,000-year rich historical, cultural and architectural background being in UNESCO World Heritage’s tentative list.

Tolentino is expecting to eclipse, if not replicate, the 19 Filipino athletes who made the 2021 Tokyo Olympics cut. He is likewise eyeing to surpass the country’s one-gold, two-silver and one-bronze haul last time.

And it looks like it will happen.