Toulouse receive Olympic gold medallist boost
NEWS: Olympic Sevens gold medallist Antoine Dupont has returned to club training on Monday following a post-Olympic holiday.
The 27-year-old is up for selection for his first game of the season for Toulouse when they will face Clermont this weekend.
“The players present are all available,” Toulouse said on Monday.
Since driving Le Blues to Olympic success on home soil, Dupont has been named the Top 14’s player of the season for 2023/4 and put his global fame to good use while on a post-Olympic break.
He spent over a week in the United States meeting Argentina football icon Lionel Messi in Miami as well as NBA legend LeBron James in California and visiting the Los Angeles Chargers’ NFL set-up.
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The record 23-time Top 14 champions had a struggling start to the new season in Dupont’s absence and are currently occupying fifth position on the Top 14 table – with three wins from their opening five matches of the campaign.
The six-time Champions Cup winners have lost back-to-back matches to Bordeaux-Begles and Castres respectively, with the loss to Bordeaux marking their first home loss since February 2022.
Dupont’s return comes a month before the French national side open their November Test series against Japan on November 9, before facing New Zealand the following week and Argentina on November 22.
Dupont will not return to sevens this season but refused to rule out an appearance at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.
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