Ménard, the chilling story of his attack

L’Equipe journalist Olivier Ménard recounts the violent attack of which he was the victim on June 10.

This Thursday marks the return to the air of Olivier Ménard, ten days after the attack of which he was the victim, on June 10, in the hall of his building in Issy-les-Moulineaux. At 9:45 p.m., the break time for the Euro 2024 clash between Spain and Italy, the journalist will host L’Equipe du Soir in the company of his columnists. Without too many after-effects a priori. “

I have never had any psychological repercussions, what we call post-traumatic shock. Physically, I have pain in my knee and doubts about the ligaments that may have moved. I have nothing broken, that’s the main thing », he explains in an interview with his colleague Sacha Nokovitch.

In a calm manner, with astonishing hindsight, Olivier Ménard looks back on the facts which caused him to be completely unable to work for several days. “ That Monday, after doing my shopping, I arrived in front of my building, I entered the code for my first digital code, I entered the hall and I did not touch the door which closed by itself. I head towards the second digicode and there, I feel a shadow rushing towards me and throwing lefts and rights in my face. Boom, boom, boom. Then, we fall to the ground and there is astonishment. I’m like, “I’m being attacked, this is weird.” Defend yourself! “. »

“My attacker wanted to kill me”

Beaten up drunk by an individual who accuses him of having “

spoken badly to (his) mother », the one his colleagues nickname “Mémé” is in shock, but far from being dejected. “ The brain is weirdly messed up. I had to take an adrenaline shot because I felt the blows but they didn’t hurt. I was a bit like a spectator of the scenehe says. But my attacker wanted to kill me! At one point, he walks a little behind me and wants to guillotine me, break my cervical vertebrae. There, doing sports every day helped me a lot. I manage to control his strength, to counter him. »

“ I was still on the defensive, I didn’t attack him and I tried to escape by crawlinghe continues. In total, the attack lasted three minutes. At the end of this time, a neighbor leaves his apartment and arrives in the airlock, the onlookers in the street stop in front of the door without being able to enter, and that’s when he decides to leave, walking… »And Olivier Ménard, who filed a complaint for attempted homicide, sought to understand why this surge of violence. “ He never said Mémé and he never referred to the L’Équipe channel, nor to the show, nor to a debate that we could have had. So, I would like to see this gentleman again, to be confronted with him: “Now, explain to me! » Since the attack, I have had the little bike spinning in my head. »