Gold and bronze for the French triathlon, Jeanjean on the podium… What to remember from the day of July 31

Following in the footsteps of Cassandre Beaugrand, French athletes continued to add to the medal count on Wednesday at the Paris Olympic Games.

While everyone’s eyes are on swimmers Léon Marchand and Maxime Grousset, both present in the final on Wednesday, July 31, the French harvest continued without them. Cassandre Beaugrand, in the triathlon, won France’s sixth gold medal in these Paris Olympic Games. Anthony Jeanjean, in BMX freestyle, Maxime-Gaël Ngayap Hambou, in judo, and Léo Bergère, again in triathlon, won bronze.

Triathlon launches medal harvest

Postponed by one day due to the quality of the water in the Seine, the triathlon events were particularly successful for the French, who were the favourites in both the men’s and women’s competitions. Cassandre Beaugrand, who was on the starting line at 8am, took gold after a controlled sprint at the very end of the race, ahead of her compatriot Emma Lombardi, who came in fourth at just 22 years old. The 27-year-old triathlete thus won the first individual medal in the history of French triathlon at the Games.

A unique performance of short duration since three hours later the men set off and… Léo Bergère, bronze medalist behind the two favorites Alex Yee and Hayden Wilde. Here again, the French team came close to a double since just behind the 28-year-old athlete was his compatriot Pierre Le Corre, also fourth. Performances that place the French among the big favorites of the final triathlon event, the mixed relay. See you next Monday.

Jeanjean settles for bronze

Coming to seek gold after his fifth place at the Tokyo Olympics, Anthony Jeanjean finished 3rd in the BMX Freestyle final, winning the first French medal in the history of this young discipline. In the overheated atmosphere of La Concorde, the 26-year-old rider, triple European champion and favourite of the competition, recovered well after a heavy fall during the very first trick of his first run.

Author of a very aerial second run, marked by an unprecedented figure, he accumulated “only” 93.76 points, only a few tenths behind the Argentinian Jose Torres, gold medalist, and the British Kieran Reilly, in silver. In the women’s race, the young Frenchwoman Laury Perez, also the victim of a big fall on her first run, finished 9th and last in the final.

The “Lebrun mania” loses a member

While the Lebrun brothers have been setting the stands of the Arena Paris Sud alight since the start of the Games, there will only be Félix in the singles quarter-finals. The youngest of the siblings (17 years old) had a scare against the veteran Dimitrij Ovtcharov, twice his age. Leading 3 sets to 0, he was caught 3-3 by the former world number 1 before snatching victory in the seventh set. But his older brother Alexis was unable to shake up the hierarchy against the Brazilian Hugo Calderano, world number 6, and lost 4 sets to 1.

A bronze medal to avoid famine

Maxime-Gaël Ngayap Hambou confirmed the great momentum that French judo has been riding since the start of the Olympics, with at least one medal won per day. The little-known judoka won bronze in the -90 kg category after an exceptional performance in his first Olympic Games. The 23-year-old athlete stood on the podium of a major international championship for the first time in his young career, beating Brazilian Rafael Macedo in the bronze medal match.

He brings French judo its seventh medal (two silver and five bronze). A few hours earlier, Marie-Eve Gahié, second in the last world championship, had lost in the quarter-finals, before being beaten again in the repechage by the Belgian Gabrielle Willems, who controlled her on the ground from the first seconds of the fight.