French President Emmanuel Macron watch the the victory ceremony of men's Cycling BMX Racing at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France, on Aug. 2, 2024. (Xinhua/Li Yibo)
PARIS, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- French President Emmanuel Macron was in the stands to watch a historic French 1-2-3 finish in the final of the men's BMX racing on Friday night.
Macron made a lightening dash 35 kilometers out of Paris to the BMX track at Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines after watching the swimming earlier in the evening.
His efforts were rewarded in incredible style as the French riders swept the board in the men's race, to claim the gold, silver and bronze medals, with Jorid Daudet taking gold, while Sylvain Andre second and Romain Mathieu third.
Daudet finished the 400-meter course in 31.422 seconds, with Andre 0.284 of a second behind, while Mathieu was just 0.600 of a second slower after the French riders dominated from start to finish, to the background of their cheering fans.
"We dreamed of that. It's amazing. The people, the crowd were amazing and it's hard to realize what we did. We're all going to celebrate it."
"It's a dream come true. It's hard to take in now, but I'm sure tonight is going to be pretty special," said Olympic champion Daudet, while Andre was also delighted by the achievement.
"To achieve first, second and third... We knew that it was possible, but it was a slim chance, and we all wanted to win the race. I'm glad that we did," he said, adding that after the positive start, the trio had "controlled the race."
The three French riders had also dominated the semifinals, with the three best scores and the only surprise was perhaps that Mathieu had to settle for bronze after claiming all three of his runs in the semis.
There was also a sobering reminder of the danger that BMX holds when Kye Whyte crashed out early in the second leg of the semifinals, with the silver medal winner from Tokyo needing several minutes of treatment on the track, before being carried off on a stretcher and taken to hospital.
Saya Sakakibara of Australia completed a perfect day's performance to take gold in the women's race.
The World Cup leader finished well ahead in her three semifinal runs, before powering home in the final, to finish several bike lengths ahead of Manon Veenstra of the Netherlands and Switzerland's Zoe Claessens in third.
"I just had that in mind. I didn't want to leave here without making myself proud, make these setbacks worthwhile," she said afterwards.
The surprise of the final was that reigning Olympic champion Bathany Shriever finished well off the pace in eighth place. Shriever went into the final after winning all of her previous races, but never recovered from a poor start in the decisive race.
"I won everything going in and I think maybe I might have got a little bit excited, my thoughts got away from me but I can't complain."
"I've had the best time, the absolute best time and that's what it's all about," said the British rider. ■
