The French delegation won two medals on the first day of the Paralympic Games in Beijing, Saturday March 5, which was also synonymous with disappointment for skier Marie Bochet.
Arthur Bauchet in gold, Hyacinthe Deleplace in bronze
It didn’t take long to witness the first French title. The skier Arthur Bauchet won gold on Saturday in the downhill, in the standing category, ahead of the Austrian Markus Salcher and the Swiss Théo Gmür. An accomplishment for him, four times Olympic vice-champion four years ago in Pyeongchang. ” It’s crazy ! To hear the Marseillaise, everyone comes for that. I said I was coming here to have fun. The pleasure he was 100% on the track. What I was missing was the result. » The other French, Manoël Bourdenx, Jordan Broisin and Oscar Burnham, are respectively 7and13and and 18and.
Still downhill, in the visually impaired category this time, the Blues won a new medal, bronze, thanks to Hyacinthe Deleplace. The Frenchman, associated with his guide Valentin Giraud-Moine, showed a little disappointment at the finish of a race won by the Austrian Johannes Aigner, ahead of the Canadian Mac Marcoux: “I would have liked to do better. Only, I did not put all the ingredients that I could put two days ago [lors des entraînements]. And it feels direct. I’m a little disappointed, but happy nonetheless. »
The disappointment for Marie Bochet
The Chinese track, on the other hand, did not smile so much on the French women for this first day of the Games. Gold medalist in Sochi (2014) and Pyeongchang (2018), Marie Bochet did not manage the pass of three in the downhill standing category, due to a loss of skis from the second gate of the route. In tears on arrival, the eight-time Paralympic champion confided that she did not have ” really explanatory. She will try to revive on Sunday during the super-G, where she is also a double title holder.
In biathlon, no medal either for the standard-bearer Benjamin Daviet, who finished at the foot of the podium during the sprint. For his part, Anthony Chalençon hung the 9and placed in the visually impaired category.
A hard blow for Marie Bochet ??⛷ Double Paralympic downhill champion, the Frenchwoman lost a ski in the… https://t.co/sJP9KIiv9L
Ukraine tops medal standings
As a symbol, it is Ukraine which leads the medal table after the first day of the Paralympic Games. The Ukrainians won three titles thanks to Vitaliy Lukyanenko in the sprint (visually impaired), Grygorii Vovchynskyi (standing) and Oksana Shyshkova (visually impaired). “The medals are of no importance, compared to what our relatives and people who have already suffered from the war are going through” in Ukraine, she said.
In front of their public, the Chinese athletes also got off to a good start at the Games, pocketing eight charms, two in gold (Liu Zixu in the standing men’s sprint and Guo Yujie in the seated women’s sprint, three in silver and three in bronze). With a delegation of 96 athletes, China is already doing much better than four years ago, from the first day of competition. In 2018, China brought back only one medal from South Korea.