The Beijing Olympics are going pretty well for the French delegation so far. With 11 medals, our athletes are on the basis of the last competitions where they brought back 15. To do so, they can count on the talent of the impressive Quentin Fillon Maillet, who is already at 4! The skating couple Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron also shone on the ice and we are still waiting for great moments to come. And that could happen very quickly since the very young Tess Ledeux will try to bring back a second medal for France tonight in the women’s Slopestyle.
After her very fine silver medal in Big Air, the 20-year-old skier will try to repeat her feat despite the competition. One element could perhaps help the pretty blonde in her quest: the presence in Beijing of a member of her family, namely one of her cousins. And not just anyone, since he was one of two flag bearers of the French delegation during the opening ceremony, Kevin Rolland ! Indeed, Tess Ledeux and the freestyle skier, who is coming back from a terrible fall, are from the same family. In addition to sharing a family bond, the two athletes both practice in the discipline of freestyle skiing.
That doesn’t stop us from being close as cousins
Visibly very close, Kevin and Tess had lent themselves to a cross interview for France 3 before the 2018 Olympics, in which they had both already participated. If they like each other a lot, their 12 years apart fact that there is still a little distance between them. “We’re cousins, we’re not brother and sister either. I don’t know him by heart, he doesn’t know me by heart. We have a family bond that brings us closer.”synthesizes Tess Ledeux, before her cousin is no longer: “That’s it. And casually, there’s also this age difference that we don’t hang out together every day in life. But that doesn’t stop us from being close as cousins and cousin”.
A beautiful relationship despite the generational gap that makes Tess Ledeux and Kevin Rolland a rarity in the winter sports world. Let’s hope for them that this singularity will bring them luck to help France win new medals!