Narrative
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In her last Paralympics, the 36-year-old Frenchwoman created a surprise by beating her compatriot Heidi Gaugain during the 3000m pursuit before feeling unwell when receiving her medal.
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Side by side on the highest steps of the podium in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. In public, Heïdi Gaugain and Marie Patouillet did not talk too much about this crazy scenario before the competition. Saturday night, when they went to bed in the room they share at the Ibis hotel next to the velodrome, it is hard to believe that the two women did not talk about it. And that they did not then dream about it for a good part of the night, of this Marseillaise and medals that would hang around their necks at the end of the 3 km pursuit (category C5).
If the dream came true this Sunday, September 1st, the much-imagined podium was chaotic, far from the great celebration hoped for. Heidi Gaugain did nothing but cry, inconsolable, disgusted. And Marie Patouillet, completely white, collapsed when receiving her medal, held at arm’s length by her opponents and members of the French team staff. Before being evacuated in a wheelchair – she would speak of a heat stroke linked to the nearly 40°C felt in the room, to the effort and the emotion. “So there, we experienced a somewhat atypical podium all the same,” will say afterwards the manager of the performance of paracycling, Laurent Thirionet. An understatement. Marie Patouillet will speak, she
