Gymnastics | Félix Dolci: Bloody hand, mixed feelings

(Paris) “In life, I either win or I learn. I really intend to learn [quelque chose] of this day of competition.

Contrary to what his statement suggests, Félix Dolci did not have a catastrophic qualifying day. He actually qualified for the all-around final with a 22^e place – only the top 24 got their ticket. That’s without counting the team final, in which he will participate with his Canadian teammates.

But Dolci clearly expected more from himself on the various apparatus. He had especially high expectations on the ground, his specialty. Without doing badly, he made a few mistakes here and there in his landings. That earned him a score of 14.133.

“It’s the apparatus where I had the most hope for a final. It wasn’t catastrophic either, but let’s say that I rushed the performance a bit,” he said during his passage in the mixed zone, about fifteen minutes after the end of qualifying.

After his performance on the floor, Dolci and the Canadian team had to perform on the pommel horse. A hand placement error at the end of the exercise caused him to miss his dismount. Final score: 11.133. This did not affect the Laval native too much, as it is the apparatus on which he has the most difficulty and his three colleagues managed to obtain good scores for the team competition. However, it was another difficult blow to absorb.

Later in the qualifying round, Dolci watched what was happening on the other side of the amphitheater, on the high bar. Former world champion on that apparatus, American Brody Malone, fell.

“It really made me realize that no matter who you are, no matter what you accomplish, this is the Olympics, anything can happen,” he said. “Just because you can compete for a final doesn’t mean you’re necessarily going to get it.”

“It brought me back down to earth a bit, it gave me confidence in our team, in my individual result.”

Bloody hands

Dolci also had to deal with significant pain in his right hand. When he appeared before the media, his hand was bandaged, but blood could still be seen on it. “I painted the parallel bars two minutes ago, there’s blood everywhere,” the 22-year-old said.

The gymnast deals with hand problems “quite frequently.” Last week, during the training camp, everything was under control. As soon as he arrived in Paris, “everything opened up.” Not to mention his ankle pain, which has been affecting him for several months.

“It’s really bothering me right now,” Dolci admitted of his hands. “There’s a lot of things that really bother me, but it’s definitely not a first in my career. I’ve competed with broken wrists, broken shoulders, it’s a thing I’ve seen before. Of course, when you’re at the Olympics, you hope to be in perfect shape, that everything is beautiful, but these things happen.”

“Extremely proud of my boys »

Félix Dolci was nevertheless able to take away “a lot of positives” from his qualifying day. “It really wasn’t all bad, there were some great accomplishments. There were [exercices] who have been in the biggest ones I have [accomplis] at the international level, which I have achieved today.”

He talks about the parallel bars, which earned him a score of 14.400. Failing to take part in a final on an apparatus, he will be there in the all-around and team competitions.

“Of course, you always hope for the best, but the truth is that it doesn’t always happen that way,” the gymnast continued, his head held high. “But I remain really positive, optimistic for the future. At the end of the day, the team did a great job and I’m extremely proud of my boys.”