PARIS — Joris Daudet led a French blank sweep of the rostrum in males’s BMX racing on Friday, in any case bringing French riders the Olympic medals that had see you later eluded them.
His compatriots Sylvain Andre and Romain Mahieu took silver and bronze in entrance of an ecstatic house crowd within the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines stadium to chants of “allez les bleus.”
Within the presence of French President Emmanuel Macron, the 3 Frenchmen shot out of the beginning ramp and maintained their lead during the general, zooming over the bumpy, winding route in a 1-2-3 formation like one blue-and-white streak.
“To reach first, 2nd and 3rd, we knew that it was once imaginable, that there was once a slender probability, and all of us sought after to win the race. I am satisfied that we did, and now not the others,” Andre informed newshounds.
The French have ruled BMX racing in fresh a long time, accumulating 50 gold medals at international championships since 1982, and Daudet and Mahieu are first and 2nd on the planet scores.
On the Olympics, on the other hand, that they had most effective bagged two medals for the reason that game’s debut in Beijing in 2008.
With Dutchman Niek Kimmann not able to protect his Tokyo 2021 name because of sickness and Tokyo silver medalist Kye Whyte of Britain hampered by means of a again damage, the French ruled their semifinals.
Tokyo bronze medalist Carlos Ramirez of Colombia didn’t make it to the final 4.
For Daudet, 33, the gold medal was once the head in an extended occupation that introduced his first Global Championship medal, a bronze, in 2010.
He has been a dominant presence in BMX racing for greater than a decade, successful a file 9 international championship medals, together with golds in 2011, 2016 and 2024.
Daudet is making plans to retire after his fourth Olympic Video games.
“I truly love BMX however I do not believe I truly need to be concerned within the BMX trade. I have completed the whole lot that I sought after to do. I need to experience lifestyles with my spouse and my youngsters,” he informed newshounds this week.
Within the girls’s BMX race, Saya Sakakibara of Australia gained gold, Manon Veenstra of the Netherlands took silver and Zoe Claessens of Switzerland claimed bronze.
The Australian rider was once the No. 1 ranked feminine BMX Racing rider in 2024 and 2023, making an excellent comeback after two years marked by means of damage: a concussion on the Tokyo 2021 Olympics and a 2022 crash that left her with a bruised lung and any other concussion.
Sakakibara and Mahieu, who’re relationship each and every different, will pass house with a medal apiece — one gold, one bronze — on the identical Video games and in the similar self-discipline.
“My boyfriend and I, we get to journey in combination, race in combination and practice the similar purpose. We’re each at a truly prime degree in combination and we’ve got been sharing wins at international cup rounds over the last two years, so expectantly we will be able to make {that a} medal,” Sakakibara informed Reuters this week.
–Reuters, Particular to Box Degree Media
