Thomas Siniecki, Media365: published on Friday August 30, 2024 at 11:39 p.m.
Djika Diallo’s crazy day ended Friday with a defeat in the final. But it was a wave of happiness that invaded him.
Djelika Diallo, aged just 19, won the ninth medal for the French team at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games on Friday evening. In the final, her last Brazilian opponent was too much above and the images were exceptional, since the so-called Ana Carolina Silva De Moura insisted that her competitor and her coach Haby Niaré, who lit up the day at the Grand Palais with her constantly ecstatic reactions of joy, go and greet the public (also with her own coach) in a perfectly contagious overall joy. It must be admitted, it was unthinkable at the Olympics.
“I started not even five years ago!”
“It’s an exceptional day, I was really stressed in the morning because I came up against the reigning champion, but I managed to beat her and then my goal became to win gold,” reacted in the heat of the moment (on France 3) the woman who will forever remain the first French Paralympic medalist in the history of taekwondo: “Unfortunately, it didn’t come to anything, but I’m so proud of my journey… I started not even five years ago and I’m already a medalist!” It was her PE teacher at secondary school who spotted and encouraged her.
Paralyzed from birth at the brachial plexus level, she shares her immense pride in getting on this podium in France: “Thank you to all my family and the public for this support, to my coach who is the best! I still achieved the objective.” And how! Already heading to Los Angeles, even if she is not yet able to confirm if she will aim for gold in four years. It is just time, and for a long time to come, to savor.
