Continuation of these FFL d’Or 2024, with the start of the podium. These three phenomena all share a misadventure in common; in a tenth of a second, their lives changed. But luckily for them, on the good side.
5. Alexis Jandard
It’s April 4, it’s 11 a.m. With three days left, we would have thought we were experiencing a bad April Fool’s joke. But what the whole of France witnessed is indeed real. Even a few months later, our hairs stand on end, and we get chills just thinking about it. Of course, we are not talking about Léon Marchand’s four Olympic titles, but about the inauguration of the Olympic aquatic center in Saint-Denis. Planned to host the synchronized swimming, diving and water polo events at the Olympic Games, this complex will actually make history well before the Olympics.
What better way to highlight France’s reputation than to test the diving boards on a full-scale basis in the presence of the President of the Republic? Just to impress, and prove to the whole world that France is THE prestigious country that it thinks it is? The President didn’t ask for that much.
But while the show is taking place live, one of the divers performs the dish of his life, eats the diving board with a little humiliating bounce as it should, and causes an immense splash most degrading in front of the assembly. All under the admiring eyes of the Head of State, like Pierre Brochant in front of François Pignon when he understands that he has just found his champion. From then on, the Google search “diver fall” exploded and erupted the web, well before France’s incredible snub at the world championships. The one we still know under the dubious name of “François Pignon du divingoir” will not take long to make a name for himself among the Greats who made France; Alexis Jandard.
And who other than the main interested party to confess to the FFL about this moment of intergalactic embarrassment? Rarely has an inauguration of an aquatic center been so historic. If there is one word we would like to say to him, it is: thank you. And welcome to these FFL d’Or.
3. Cédric Doumbè
We start from the podium of the FFL d’Or with heavy weight. It was THE fight at the top of French MMA. A duel between Cédric Doumbè and Baysangour Chamsoudinov, better known as Baki. The Accor Arena was white hot for a meeting that was to go down in posterity. And as if the poster wasn’t enough to make us salivate, the scenario also adds its two cents. Each fighter wins a round, the third and last is therefore decisive.
But during the third act, Doumbè suddenly complains about his foot. Is it broken? No. Is he bleeding? Neither. No, what handicaps Doumbè is a splinter, a crazy length of several millimeters. He then implores the referee to be able to remove it; as a good Samaritan, the latter accepts, but ends the match. Baki is declared the winner, or rather Doumbè is declared defeated by a splinter, and finds himself trailing 1-0 by the latter in a direct confrontation. We are certainly in one of the most FFL endings in MMA history. And this comes in a Franco-French fight. Coincidence? Absolutely not.
I was going to turn pro but I had a thorn in my foot, you know.
3. Arthur Rinderknech
In terms of gag and flattering abandon for the FFL’s editorial line, that of Arthur Rinderknech also deserves its place on the podium. In the second round of Roland-Garros, the Frenchman achieved the nightmarish triptych for our federation: seeing a French tennis player lead the score (two sets to nothing), what’s more at Roland-Garros, and facing an Argentinian, in the person of Tomas Etcheverry.
All the ingredients are therefore there to experience a dark evening on this Thursday, May 30, 2024. But visibly, Arthur realizes the damage he is doing to France which is losing, and decides to get back on track. A sublime 1-6 in the third set, just to put Etcheverry back in the game, like the good gentleman that he is. And it’s soon the fourth round which resumes on the same standards, with a break for the Argentinian at the start of the set. A little light to join the FFL d’Or, but wait for the rest.
So Rinderknech, who knows himself better than anyone, knows what remains to do to get off on the right foot; destroy said foot against an advertising board. Zero fake news. The Frenchman lost the next three games. And for good reason, as everyone knows, smashing your foot against an advertising board has never helped you play tennis better. Better yet, even though he still leads the score, Arthur Rinderknech is forced to retire. A barely hidden homage to a three-letter acronym, the first two of which are identical.
And to say at the end of the match: “I feel great physically but I just messed up“. Arthur at least has the privilege of joining the Pantheon of stupid injuries.
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