Triathlete Cassandre Beaugrand walked on water on Wednesday to give France its sixth gold medal of the Paris Olympics, where suspense lasted until the end over whether the event would take place due to the quality of the water in the Seine.
At the end of a perfectly controlled race, Beaugrand, 27, beat the surprising Swiss Julie Derron and the other favorite, the British Beth Potter, offering the first medal of the French triathlon since the integration of the discipline in the Olympic program in 2000 in Sydney. Emma Lombardi could have brought a second, but she failed in 4th place after the final sprint.
A few hours earlier, around 4am, the French women were having breakfast when the organisers and the international body World Triathlon gave the green light for the races to go ahead.
The men’s race, the day before, had been postponed by a day due to the poor quality of the water in the Seine, a series of events that would have long fuelled doubt.
The uncertainty clearly did not disturb Cassandre Beaugrand too much, even if the Frenchwoman acknowledged an eventful pre-race.
“I started throwing up before the start, which had never happened to me before, the rest of the race I was really focused,” she said at the finish.
“I knew that in the race I was normally the one who had the best finish, but (…) it was the longest 1500 meters of my life, and I gritted my teeth until the end. Now I have trouble taking it in.”
Postcard decor
The rain stopped at exactly 8am, when the competitors dove into the Seine under the eyes of IOC President Thomas Bach, Cojo President Tony Estanguet, Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo.
Defending champion Flora Duffy, 36, handled the river’s currents best. Bermuda’s first female Olympic champion emerged first, ahead of the main podium contenders including Beaugrand and Lombardi.
Having achieved the best individual result by a French woman at the Olympics to date (5th place) in Tokyo three years ago, Périault, on her 30th birthday, was however “eliminated” in the swimming, with a prohibitive delay of more than two minutes.
The group of favourites, of around ten units, quickly caught up with Duffy on his bike, on a slippery road, punctuated by several cobbled sections, which caused several falls.
Four girls quickly broke away on foot: the 2023 British world champion Potter, the two French girls Beaugrand and Lombardi and the Swiss girl Derron, who was not necessarily expected at such a party.
In a picture-postcard setting, around the Alexandre-III bridge and its golden statues, Beaugrand, who had gone to settle in England after her disappointment in Tokyo (abandonment), put in a decisive acceleration on the last lap.
She finished ahead of Derron and Potter, with Lombardi failing to reach the podium in her first Olympic appearance.
The men’s race will start at 10:45 (08:45 GMT). Dorian Coninx, Léo Bergère and Pierre Le Corre will try to follow Beaugrand’s example.