in the middle of the BMX freestyle massacre, Anthony Jeanjean won the bronze – Libération

2024-07-31 17:16:21

In La Concorde, the favorites, men and women, fail. However, the Frenchman managed to grab third place thanks to an impressive second run.

Sign up to get free our Libélympic newsletter every morning during the Games.

A chill in the middle of a heat wave, on the afternoon of Wednesday 31 July, in the pot of the Concorde BMX stadium. Unfortunately there were three shots to start the Freestyle BMX final when the Frenchwoman Laury Perez, the first to be set as the final competitor on Tuesday, fell at the first obstacle. He just managed to finish his second run (the best of the two held on for the final position), losing control during a landing which failed to make him touch the ground. Far behind Chinese gold medalist Deng Yawen, the 20-year-old French rider finished ninth in his first Olympic Games.

On to the end of the men. Frenchman Anthony Jeanjean, 26, seventh in Tokyo and the big favorite in Paris, started fifth. He killed some under his feet during qualifying, just to leave in front of his most important opponent and “put pressure on them”. The rider plays with the audience, one with his fingers. Two very deep breaths, and he left. According to Laury Perez, his training partner at the company Sérignan (Hérault), he fell at the first hurdle. He took in the second run, keeping his promise to impress the jury and the public, especially with an alley-oop flair double. A first place in the competition. But a few small mistakes will cost him gold and silver: “Falled on the first trick, when I haven’t fallen all week, it’s hard…”

Berezina for the likes

Pressure control problem within the French, as is the case in skateboarding? Not only that. Because the massacre affected almost all the favorites on Wednesday. With the highest person, Hannah Roberts, pioneer of discipline among women, five times world champion and world number 1. Two falls, enough to throw her bike in frustration. Two falls also for the third in the world, the Chinese Sun Jiaqi. The podium? Unexpectedly therefore with, as the only survivors among the favorites, the Chinese with the bodies of metal Deng Yawen in gold, followed by two surprises, who agreed to have participated without any pressure: “To achieve this, at the Olympic Games, I did not expect it, answered the Australian bronze Natalya Diehm, also disconcerted by the failure of her friend Hannah Roberts. It’s very sad what happened to him, even though he won most of the BMX Freestyle. “ Perris Benegas, in silver after not being there this year, just left “unspeakable”.

It is almost the same observation for men: berezina for the favorites, and if Jeanjean manages to save jewelry, this is not the case for the Australian Martin Logan, the Olympic champion, who fell on his two paths. The Argentinian, completely unstoppable (and not even loud, like his colleagues from the opening ceremony) José Torres Gil, 13th in the world, won in front of the American Kieran Reilly (2nd in the world) who has information about many rain fall: “The competition is at an incredible level, unprecedented, we hit all the walls. To compete for the podium, we have to take all the risks. “