Despite the final frustration in the relay, successful Games for French triathlon

Favorite in the mixed triathlon relay on Monday, the French team lost all hope of a medal after a fall by Pierre Le Corre, but leaves these Games with its head held high.

At first light, thousands of people were already packed into the vicinity of the Pont Alexandre III. As with the individual races, the French public showed up for the mixed triathlon relay on Monday, August 5, around the Pont Alexandre III, the Grand Palais and the National Assembly. It must be said that the Blues were big favorites for this relay, before fate decided otherwise with the fall of Pierre Le Corre, the first French relay runner, on his bike.

“It’s a nightmare. I’m going to think about this fall for years, even though it’s not my fault. I’m disgusted to hand over to them in last place,” conceded the dejected Breton after the race. Installed in the wheel of the New Zealand Olympic vice-champion Hayden Wilde, Pierre Le Corre could do nothing to avoid the fall when the latter made a mistake.The first relay is the most tense, the one that no one wants to have. I try to get back on the bike really quickly, but I suffer the double penalty by derailing…”replayed Pierre Le Corre.

With a forty-second deficit on the race leader, France is last at the end of the Breton relay. In turn, Emma Lombardi, Léo Bergère and then Cassandre Beaugrand set off to achieve the impossible. Despite an enormous final relay by the Olympic champion, the Blues can do no better than fourth, weighed down by this racing incident. “Disappointment prevails, but in a mixed relay, a lot of things can happen. Even today, we learned this hard lesson.”said Léo Bergère after the race.

“We set off with ambitions of victory, but we know that it’s difficult to put four relay runners end to end without mistakes, without falls, without punctures, without penalties. When Pierre fell we accepted this fact of the race. We didn’t give up, that’s what we have to remember: we fought until the end.”

Leo Bergere

to franceinfo: sport

“Of course, it makes you bitter, but it’s part of the race. It’s terrible when it happens at the Olympic Games. It’s going to take time to digest all that.”added Benjamin Maze, the DTN of the Blues. But when it came time to take stock, the head coach of the French triathletes managed to gain perspective: “It doesn’t spoil the results. We had three races. In the individual races, we keep some positives, some pride. Here, we finished fourth but if we look at the course of the race, it’s a great performance. In the end, it will make the French Losing Federation smile. We’re adding to their results a little.”

“If we had been bad, it would have tarnished the record. But this is a fact of the race, it wasn’t even Pierre who fell first. It doesn’t tarnish the record: we fought until the end. The record is not bad with two individual medals.”

Leo Bergere

to franceinfo: sport

Author of an impressive last relay, Cassandre Beaugrand wants to remember the combativeness that the Blues demonstrated: “We didn’t do badly. We were last at the end of the first stint and we finished 4th. It’s also thanks to the public, it was incredible.”. After months of controversy over the water in the Seine, the French team has indeed succeeded in putting triathlon back at the heart of the issue, and offered exceptional publicity to this booming discipline. Not to mention the two medals, gold and bronze in the individual event, a record never achieved since 2000 and the arrival of triathlon in the Olympic program. Until now, the French team had only been able to snatch a bronze medal in 2021 in Tokyo in the mixed relay.

“Apart from the two medals, our first at the Games individually, the incredible side of these Games is this popular success”appreciated Benjamin Maze, before already turning towards the Los Angeles Games in 2028: “We have races to prepare for the next Games, to reach the same level, to be among the favourites in all the races, and to do better”If the French triathlon remains so dense, there is no reason to doubt it.