Make way for snow and ice artists. The 2022 Winter Olympics will officially kick off this Friday afternoon in China with the opening ceremony in Beijing. Kévin Rolland, the freestyle skier, and the alpine skier Tessa Worley will be the French flag bearers. Nearly 3,000 athletes, including 88 French, participate in these Olympics. This Saturday the two Norman specialists in speed skating, short track, Quentin Fercoq and Sebastien Lepape will start the competition.
The head of the French delegation, the former skater from Rouen Nathalie Péchalat, was the guest of France Bleu Normandie this Friday morning. Tested positive for Covid, she will follow the start of the tests remotely before hoping to be able to reach China: “I want everyone to be proud of their performance against the personal goal set. There are not medalists on one side and non-medalists on the other. That everyone can do what they are capable of in order to be proud of what they achieve” says Nathalie Péchalat.
Many athletes have become champions with the impulses of great champions that we see during the Olympic Games. Nathalie Pechalat
Several countries have chosen to diplomatically boycott these Winter Olympics in China to report violations of human rights. The French sports minister Roxana Maracineanu will only be there from February 11 to 15. ” Sport must be a tool, necessarily to bring people together, to get to know each other, to understand each other and to understand our culture. It’s a way to reach out“judges the former skater who adds that”the French delegation wanted to go to Beijing because there are athletes who work for years to get a medal or in any case go to the Olympic Games. They are connected to their performance. It’s normal, it’s their job. We don’t ask them to position themselves” concludes Nathalie Péchalat who personally caught the skating virus by watching Paul and Isabelle Duchesnay at the Albertville Olympics in 1992.