One of the Olympic favorites hasn’t trained for a month. Now he’s sidelined indefinitely and has no idea when he can resume preparations for the season.

After several weeks without training and mounting problems, the French sprint star still doesn’t see any light at the end of the tunnel.

The World Championships in Trondheim were Lucas Chanavat’s big goal, but the event turned into a huge disappointment. Sixth place was far from the world title he had dreamed of, and now the 30-year-old is going all in for revenge at the Olympics.

That dream, however, suffered a brutal setback when Chanavat was diagnosed with a stress fracture in the tibia at the beginning of September.

Also Read: Stress fracture sidelines French sprint star

Out indefinitely

The stress fracture forced him to halt his preseason preparations. The hope was that a couple of weeks of alternative training would be sufficient.

But now Chanavat must instead settle for even more rest.

“Ever since I got the diagnosis, it’s been a complete stop. I’ve tried to cycle gently to maintain some training, but I have another issue with a knee when I ride,” sighed the sprint star to Le Dauphiné.

“The accumulation of problems has made it extremely difficult to train at all. So, as things stand now, I just have to wait until the injury heals, and then start over when I’m better.”

Olympic dream in jeopardy

For now, Chanavat is forced to be patient, but he realizes that his Olympic dream is hanging by a thread.

“Healing and pain will determine everything. But the start of the season will definitely be affected,” said national team coach Thibaut Chêne.

“We must try to find an effective solution to bring him back to the World Cup and prepare for the Olympics. We’ll take it as it comes. But right now, we simply don’t know anything.”

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