Paralympic Games: Cécile Hernandez, gold medalist in snowboardcross


The Frenchwoman Cécile Hernandez, who almost did not participate in the Paralympic Games, won gold on Monday in snowboarding.

Cécile Hernandez could have not participated in the Paralympic Games. Two weeks before the start of the competition, she was still stuck in France, struggling as much as she could to make herself heard. Medalist in 2014 and 2018 in snowboardcross, she found herself faced with the decision of the organizers, last December, to abolish her category, for lack of competitors. But the 47-year-old put on a fight and won in court. “I am allowed to run with the girls at the world championships and not at the Games, although it is the same organisations. It infuriates! Until today, I have won all the races. If I don’t go to the Games, it’s completely unfair,” she told France Bleu Roussillon. She added: “The International Paralympic Committee is completely flouting all the values ​​which are to present the best athletes, a value of inclusion, even more in the handicap. It is totally unfair”.

On Monday, she took her revenge in the most beautiful way by winning gold. The young woman suffering from multiple sclerosis since the age of 19 did not hide her emotion on arrival. “I officially knew that I would be there only a week before departure. I didn’t give up even though they still made me miserable this week… They didn’t really want me to be there. But hey, they were wrong to react like that because it gave me a lot of strength,” she said. It gives France its fourth medal since the start of the Games, the second in gold.

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