The burst of pride of the standard-bearer of the Blues, Benjamin Daviet, crowned in sprint cross-country skiing, allowed the French delegation to gain a place in the classification of nations at the Paralympic Games in Beijing (until March 13).
With six medals, including four gold, France is in fourth place. Canada (sixteen medals, including seven titles) took second place at the expense of Ukraine (nineteen medals, six titles). China, the host country, is still in the lead with thirty-one charms, ten of which are gold.
First podium in Beijing for Benjamin Daviet
The Frenchman ended his black series. The triple Paralympic champion in Pyeongchang, in 2018, has finally managed to climb on a podium in China, and even on the top step! Benjamin Daviet won on Wednesday March 9 in sprint cross-country skiing (standing category), ahead of the German Marco Maier and the Ukrainian Grygorii Vovchynskyi.
The 32-year-old sportsman had failed the day before in a disappointing sixth place in the medium-distance biathlon, after having already missed the medal by five seconds in the sprint in this same discipline.
“I had so much anger in me for doing anything on the first two [courses des Jeux]that suddenly I unloaded everything today »he confided at the end of his coronation.
“The gold medal is done (…) and it will really free me. I look forward. »
The Annecy skier still has three races on the program before the end of the Games on Sunday to do as well as in South Korea.
That’s it for today… but I’m still hungry for tomorrow and the sprint knockout. Thank you for the outpouring of love you have given me… https://t.co/ldPCs4o2Gg
The number of the day: 17
This is the temperature in degrees Celsius recorded on Wednesday in the city of Zhangjiakou, some 200 km north of Beijing, not far from the Chongli site, which hosts the Nordic events. On the slopes, the temperatures were 10 degrees cooler, but enough to resemble summer weather in Norway, summed up the cross-country skier Birgit Skarstein (seated category). So much so that some athletes even competed in their race… in T-shirts!
The organizers of the Games were forced to bring forward the snowboard slalom events from Saturday to Friday, due to a “high risk of rain and snowmelt”.
It’s hard to imagine that last month, during the Olympic Games, it was the cold (up to – 30 degrees felt) and the wind that disrupted the calendar.
Brian McKeever towards Gerd Schönfelder’s record?
Brian McKeever, 42, continues his harvest. On Wednesday, the Canadian veteran won his fifteenth Paralympic title, his second in Beijing, by winning the cross-country sprint in the visually impaired category. American Jake Adicoff and Swedish Zebastian Modin complete the podium, followed by Frenchman Anthony Chalençon.
?? Brian McKeever snatched away to win the Paralympic title! ?? Anthony Chalençon finishes fourth in the… https://t.co/upIVt7FEoO
Already crowned in the 20 km classic two days earlier, Brian McKeever can still equal the record of German skier Gerd Schönfelder, retired in 2010, who, with sixteen gold medals in his career, is the most successful Paralympic athlete in the world. ‘story.
Verdict, Saturday, with the middle distance test.