Daniel Dhers wins first Olympic medal as a coach

Venezuelan rider Daniel Dhers has won another Olympic medal, but this time not on a bicycle, but as a coach.

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One of the greatest BMX freestyle athletes of all time, who did not qualify for Paris, has been living in China for some time as coach of his Olympic team, which won the gold medal on Wednesday thanks to a remarkable performance by Yawen Deng in the women’s park category event at the La Concorde venue.

Eighteen-year-old Deng led the competition with 92.60 points from her second heat. American Perris Benegas (90.70) and Australian Natalya Diehm (88.80) completed the podium.

“Today I woke up and thought: ‘I’ve been living in China for months’, which I like, but I find it difficult. And I said to myself: ‘This has to be worth it at the end of the day,’ Dhers said in an interview with The Associated Press after his Chinese pupil’s victory.

The Venezuelan rider, a silver and gold medalist at Tokyo 2021 and multiple X Games champion, the discipline’s flagship competition before it became an Olympic event, moved to China in May last year.

The most complex thing is the language barrier.

“They don’t speak English, they are learning. And I am learning Chinese. When I have to tell them something very technical, I need an assistant.”he explained.

The coach of Deng and Jiaqi Sun, the other Chinese representative who finished seventh after a fall in her first round, was wearing the Asian delegation’s kit.

Standing on the side of the court, she was thrilled with the performance of her team and raised her arms when the gold medal was sealed.

“I’m still riding, it feels very, very close“, he acknowledged. “I gave them the information, they had to prove it. I’m there, feeling the nerves as if I were competing. It’s very similar. When they fall, I feel like I fell.

China’s Deng Yawen poses with the gold medal after winning the women’s BMX freestyle event at the Olympics

Dhers said he will retire this year at the Abu Dhabi World Championships in December.

For the time being he will continue working with the Chinese team.

“I will continue, this means a lot for BMX. It may sound strange because China is very new to this, but China is a big investor in the sport. I know they will do it now thanks to this result: a very important injection of money into this sport, which will help develop it.”advancement.

Dhers to Venezuela

Amid the clashes taking place in the streets of his country between opponents and supporters of the socialist government of Nicolás Maduro after last Sunday’s elections, which left 11 dead, Dhers asked his compatriots “stop the violence”.

“I am very attentive, I do not want to make a political statement, but I want people to stop killing each other,” he claimed. “Venezuela is a great country, unfortunately we have not been able to understand each other for many years. I just want my country to emerge from this like a Phoenix and for us to be able to live in peace, with a good quality of life.”

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