After poor results in sabre on Tuesday and foil on Wednesday, the French team hopes to recover in team foil on Thursday, August 5, or in épée on Friday.
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This Thursday, August 5, is the third day of the wheelchair fencing events. Time for the team foil. Fingers crossed, but despite a good start – a victory for the women in the round of 16 against Brazil – we don’t really believe in the French chances given the competition, especially from China. We’re counting on the épée on Friday to get French wheelchair fencing out of the gray zone, that thankless in-between between performance and counter-performance, in which our seven representatives seem stuck since the start of hostilities on Tuesday.
Panache
On the first day, the sabre day, the Grand Palais was as hot as it was during the Olympic Games. It immediately flared up for each national fencer, especially for Brianna Vidé. The 24-year-old from Toulouse fanned the flame by twirling her blade, in line with what she said just before the Paralympic Games during meetings with the press: “Ah no, I’m not apprehensive at all the great atmosphere at the Grand Palais. It is even a certainty that she will push me.”
The podiatrist born with a club foot flirted with the podium, reaching the small final. But she failed to materialize. Brianna Vidé, who exudes panache, was nevertheless on a par with Georgian Nino Tibilashvili for a long time. She even made a comeback, when she was trailing 11-6, which made the stands exult, to the point that the noble building seemed to be crossed by a subway train. Almost scary. But Hajmási won 15-11. Post-match, Vidé regretted not having “had the audacity to play the game, security didn’t pay off, it’s part of the experience.” And the fencer was positive: “I’m keeping a smile on my face, these are my first Games, I don’t have the right to complain.”
This micro approach holds up. The problem is that on a macro level, for the entire French team, Tuesday was a waste of time. In addition to Brianna Vidé, Maxime Valet, Clémence Delavoipière and Cécile Demaude all crossed swords in vain. And in the end, as expected, it was Asia that won. While in the men’s category A, the German Maurice Schmidt beat the British Piers Gilliver 15-8, the Chinese Gu Haiyan won in the women’s category against the Polish Kinga Drózdz 15-10. And, in category B, the Thai Saysunee Jana beat the Chinese world champion Xiao Rong by one point, but the latter’s compatriot, Feng Yanke also beat the Polish Michal Dabrowski at the post.
“My Games were stolen”
Was it a warm-up lap? After all, the massive support of the fans is also a pressure in that it is accompanied by an expectation of a medal. Things were supposed to be better the next day. But Wednesday also turned sour. Or worse, with similar scenarios. Two Chinese gold medals, a Thai, a British, and Brianna Vidé, this time stopped by a point before even the small final, by the Hong Konger Yu Chui Yee Alison, even though the Frenchwoman and the entire Grand Palais thought she had won.
The same feeling of incomprehension took over the stands during Maxime Valet’s defeat against the Ukrainian Oleg Naumenko, in the repechage for the bronze medal. In the process, in the mixed zone, the Toulousain, who is also a sports doctor, made a definitive diagnosis: “This match is a real scandal, I can’t play. I was robbed of my Games in this match. It’s anger, injustice that I feel.” Valet, 37, is one of the capped members of the French team and could legitimately aim for the podium, especially in foil where he is world number two, European vice-champion and bronze medallist in 2016 in Rio.
Sébastien Barrois, coach and performance manager of the French team, stressed to Liberated, before the competition: “We have emotional people and emotional people…” while, “as in all opposition sports, it will be the mentality that will make the difference, the ability to surpass oneself and to hurt oneself.” But the man who previously coached the French able-bodied fencing team also pointed out the lead taken by the «grosses machines», China and Eastern countries, in professionalization. We can also point out the fact that practically all French Paralympians shoot in all weapons (sabre, foil, épée), unlike their competitors, which induces an exhausting marathon. Knowing that big delays made it even heavier, Tuesday. In short, a combo that stings. So the épée remains, Friday, to hit the mark at these Paralympic Games.
