It was a bad day for France, which failed to place one of its representatives on the top step of the podium on Tuesday. Alex Portal and Ugo Didier, the spearheads of French para-swimming, did not miss out.
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With 38 medals on the evening of Tuesday, September 3, France remains clinging to 5th place in the rankings. But it sees Italy closing in on it while Brazil, in 4th place, is moving away with three more gold medals (14 against 11). Nothing insurmountable, however, provided that we avoid dark days like the one the Blues experienced in athletics today: out of the 72 medals distributed, 34 countries collected trinkets but none went to France!
French Day: Portal and Didier slowed down, parapongists in ambush
It’s probably not the medal he was hoping for, but he’ll have to make do with it. In his favourite distance of the 200m medley (category SM13), Alex Portal had to admit that he was beaten by a whisker. Once again silver, the eldest of the Portal siblings nevertheless pocketed a 4th medal at these Games after thesilver in the 100m butterfly and 400m freestyle and bronze in the 100m backstroke. The long-awaited gold will have to wait a little longer.
Paralympics 2024 – Swimming: Alex Portal wins a 4th medal in Paris
Another headliner of French para-swimming was expected this Tuesday, and she too had to be satisfied with the silver medal. Ugo Didier, who has already experienced the exhilaration of the highest step of the podium – in the 400 m freestyle – this time finished in 2nd place in the 100 m backstroke (S9 category). Portal and Didier are accompanied, in their harvest, by Laurent Chardard, “bronzed” in the 50 m butterfly in the S6 category.
While para-athletics did not smile on the French finalists, Marie Ngoussou-Ngouyi and Charles-Antoine Kouakou, para-table tennis allowed the French team to increase its medal count. Matéo Bohéas thus won bronze in MS10, while Fabien Lamirault, already a seven-time Olympic medallist, is sure to add a trinket to his collection after qualifying for the semi-finals of the individual event in the MS2 category.
Paralympics 2024 – Table tennis: relive Fabien Lamirault’s success in the quarter-finals
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Today’s performance: Catherine Debrunner alone on her planet
She is one with her chair and leaves everyone in her wake. Already crowned in the 800m T53 and 5000m T54, the Swiss woman this time won gold in the 1500m in T54. All this while leaving her runner-up, the British Samantha Kinghorn, more than three seconds behind!
Already huge, Debrunner’s feat could become historic if she manages to win three more gold medals since she is still lined up for the 100m, 400m and the marathon at the end of the week. A variety of distances that speaks volumes about the dominance of this 29-year-old para-athlete, well on her way to writing one of the most beautiful pages of these Games.
Today’s great story: Iranian giant finally found a bed that fits
It’s not easy to sleep peacefully in a standardized Paralympic Village when you’re 2.46m tall! Morteza Mehrzad, sitting volleyball star and second-tallest living human, will apparently be able to have a peaceful night’s sleep after considering sleeping on the floor.
The Iranian delegation has indeed found the solution for its giant, by adjoining three bed extensions. Thus rested, the best sitting volleyball player in the world in 2019, 2021 and 2022 will have put all the chances on his side to take Iran, qualified for the semi-final against Egypt, to the gold medal.