Kevin Mayer, still hampered by injury, draws a line under the 2025 athletics season

Decathlete Kevin Mayer announced on Wednesday, July 16, that he was giving up the 2025 season, still hampered by the hamstring injury that deprived him of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. "This is the first blank season, the first year that I will not wear the French team jersey," regretted the double Olympic silver medalist (2016, 2021) during a press briefing.
Having suffered a left leg injury since the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, where he had withdrawn, the decathlon world record holder then fell in the middle of the 110m hurdles at the Paris meeting on July 7, 2024. Suffering from a "95% torn tendon" in the hamstring of his left leg, he had to withdraw from the Olympics.
Although he had long held out hope of returning for the Tokyo World Championships (September 13-21), Kevin Mayer realized two weeks ago that he had been affected "mentally and physically" by this "serious injury," admitting that the pain dated back to the Beijing World Championships in 2015 and that he had " been struggling for years ."
"The last solution will be surgery."Kevin Mayer admits he is playing one of his "last cards" by completely stopping his physical training to focus on specific exercises. "If it doesn't work, the last resort will be surgery, which is roughly similar to the one Renaud Lavillenie had [in 2023, after a partial hamstring rupture], " the decathlete said.
The Montpellier player admitted to having gone through some difficult periods this season, marked by micro-tears and a blocked back, and moments of doubt, he who has not participated in a decathlon for a year and a half. "We all carry our cross. My problem is the physical. I know very well that if I solve this problem, I can last a very very long time," assures Kevin Mayer, who does not want to set a return date.
" All the measurements show that as long as I'm doing good physical preparation, I'm not losing anything," said the decathlete, boasting of " breaking records in javelin training ." To return, he reconnected with his former physical trainer, Jérôme Simian.
Confident of his recovery, Kevin Mayer still aims to compete in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. And why not 2032 in Australia? "I know 99.9% of people would have quit at my stadium, but not me."
The World with AFP
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