Rémy Boullé wins bronze medal in 200m kayak

Already bronze in Tokyo, the Frenchman won his second Paralympic medal in three appearances at the Games on Saturday.

A first medal for the French paracanoe. French kayaker Rémy Boullé won the bronze medal in the 200m final category KL1, for athletes with no or very limited trunk function, no leg function, in paracanoe, Saturday, September 7. Already a bronze medalist in the same event in Tokyo, the 36-year-old from Orléans finished in 47.01 seconds, just 19 hundredths behind the Brazilian Luis Carlos Cardoso, who finished second behind the Hungarian Peter Kiss, who broke the Paralympic record. He was aiming for gold, but had to settle for a second medal in three appearances at the Games.

A former air force commando, Rémy Boullé turned to paracanoeing after a serious parachute accident in 2014, where his sail did not unfold. After a 500-meter freefall and a landing on his feet, he lost the use of his lower limbs. The former member of the French parachuting team did not stop the sport, however, and took up kayaking again, which he had practiced between the ages of 12 and 17. Two years after his accident, he finished 5th in the final of the Rio Games, before winning two bronze medals, in Tokyo and then in Paris.