Will the big brother continue to set an example? Alex Portal is the first to set off again in search of an Olympic medal – his fourth – on Tuesday, after having experienced a podium with his little brother Kylian, further strengthening their “complicity”.
On the podium on Saturday, after the 400m freestyle S13, one had bright eyes and couldn’t sit still – Kylian. Alex, for his part, had a more closed face, disappointed “not to have offered a Marseillaise” to his brother after being beaten for the third time by Belarus’ Ihar Boki.
And so it was the little brother, 17 years old, in bronze, who had the task of “consoling” the big one, in silver, with whom he trains four hours a day in the pools. “But I didn’t really know how to do it, what to say” in this case, admitted Kylian.
The race had been marked in the calendar because it is the only one in common for the siblings: if they are both visually impaired, Kylan’s is more pronounced and they do not share the same category (S12 for Kylian, S13 for Alex). However, it happens that these two categories are grouped together, due to a lack of swimmers in sufficient numbers.
But the dream of achieving the same feat as at the Manchester World Championships in 2023 – gold for Alex, bronze for Kylan, Belarus being absent – was erased after a final acceleration from Boki three-quarters of the way through the race.
Now, each in their category, S13 and S12, the two swimmers will finish their Games. But without letting go of each other.
“They are very close, both in and out of the water,” even though Alex no longer lives with his parents, says their coach, Guillaume Benoist.
The brothers have very different personalities. “Kylian is on fire. He tends to be more exuberant. Alex is more reserved, more measured, but he also knows how to laugh,” says Guillaume Domingo, performance manager of the French para-swimming team, who also highlights their “complicity.”
They prefer to talk about mutual “pride”, constantly praising each other’s performances.
– Relay dream –
Swimming brings them together, just as it brings everyone together in this family that lives in the west of the Paris region.
The mother, Virginie, was closest to the pools on Saturday, but as a volunteer: she was a starter in the women’s events. The older sister, Léa, has also been swimming for a long time.
And even though he arrived at the pools later than Alex, “after a while I followed” the elders, Kylian admits. “At first, it wasn’t necessarily the thing I liked. I tried lots of other sports and then I got back into swimming.”
Kylian would be well advised to continue following the example of Alex, who already has three medals to his name in Paris, even if he has still not won gold.
Alex has one last chance on Tuesday with the 200m medley, but he will once again be facing the scarecrow of his category, Ihar Boki.
Then it will be Kylian’s turn, with the 100m freestyle on Wednesday then the 100m butterfly on Saturday.
With these two talents, the dream of the disabled sports federation, which oversees swimming, is to form a relay, which would allow the two brothers to share the same medal. It remains to find two swimmers “in the right category and with the necessary level”, underlines Guillaume Domingo.
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