Ahead of the Rugby World Cup last year a giant image of Antoine Dupont was beamed onto the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

Then, like now, he was the poster boy heading into a global sporting event on French soil, the individual on whom the hopes of a nation rested.

First time round did not turn out so well, a broken cheekbone in a pool match he did not even need to play in, saw to that.

He returned, post-surgery, for the first match of real consequence wearing a thermo-moulded PVC mask and France were eliminated by South Africa.

For his team mates it is a disappointment they will live with forever, but just 10 months on Dupont has another crack at sporting immortality.

Olympic challenge

Fresh from completing a Champions Cup-Top 14 trophy double with Toulouse, he spearheads the home challenge for Olympic glory in Rugby Sevens.

For those who see this as a consolation prize alongside the greatest prize available in rugby, a World Cup that France has never won, listen to Tom Mitchell

Dupont is a huge star in France, no question, a huge star of rugby,” he says. “But the Olympics reaches more people than rugby alone ever can.

“For me that’s part of the draw, the beauty, the glory of it. You have an opportunity to connect with people beyond your sport.

“You’re connecting with people globally who are associated with the Olympics, but particularly in your country; people who don’t necessarily follow your sport but will follow and support you in the Olympics.

“That’s a large reason why people pursue the dream and should he strike gold that will make Dupont, if he isn’t already, one of the greatest sports stars France has ever produced.”

You sense the scrum-half himself recognises this. He talks of the Olympics as “mythical, the holy grail of sport” and the upcoming event as a “highly motivating challenge”.

France has no shortage of headliners going into these Games, not least three-time reigning world champion swimmer Leon Marchand.

Marchand, 22, broke Michael Phelps’ last-standing world record in the 400m individual medley last summer and is expected to emerge from Paris with a fistful of gold.

But Dupont has an almost unique place in French hearts, even those broken by the country’s agonising quarter-final exit at the hands of the Springboks.

Like Kylian Mbappe he is both national skipper and talisman, the best in his business, a player who is rarely disappointed for long such is the brilliance he emits.

“It would have been really interesting, that Springboks quarter-final, had he not broken his cheek,” says Mike Friday head coach of the US sevens team who play France first on Wednesday. “He wasn’t 100 per cent in that game.

“At that level it’s only a little bit of hesitancy on decision making, do I go for that or do I worry about my cheek? He’d say he wasn’t worried about anything but you would be