On Monday, September 2, when Alexis Hanquinquant sets off from the Pont Alexandre-III, it will be exactly 1,843 days, or five years and two weeks, since anyone crossed the finish line before him. And yet, the Norman triathlete’s last defeat dates back to… a duathlon. On August 17, 2019, on the sidelines of the para triathlon serving as a dress rehearsal for the Tokyo Games, the swimming event had to be canceled. The culprit? The famous bacteria E. colithe one that, this summer, almost compromised the Olympic events in the Seine. This did not prevent Alexis Hanquinquant from going for gold in Tokyo Bay at the end of August 2021.
Read also the interview | Article reserved for our subscribers 2024 Paralympic Games: for triathlete Alexis Hanquinquant, “we are all handicapped by something”
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In Paris, he intends to be able to swim. In March, the flag bearer made this known to Emmanuel Macron, who had invited a handful of athletes to dinner under the gilded roof of the Elysée. “I said: ‘Be careful, a duathlon has never taken place in the history of the Games.’ I swim between 30 and 35 km per week, it’s not so that people can tell me: ‘Ultimately, at the Games, it’s useless'”said the 38-year-old athlete., on the banks of the Seine in Rouen, in mid-July.
As in other para sports, in para triathlon, athletes are classified according to disability categories. Alexis Hanquinquant competes in the PTS4 (standing category, moderate disability). In a duathlon, an athlete whose swimming is the weak point but whose running is the strong point, would thus be catapulted from outsider to favorite for a gold medal. “It would even call into question the medals”bristles the former mason who saw his right leg crushed on a building site in 2010 and was amputated three years later.
“I don’t want to fall asleep”
Eole and Helios have shown themselves to be magnanimous. Starting from the Pont Alexandre-III, the event will include 750 m of swimming, then 20 km of cycling and 5 km of running to finish. The six-time world and European champion (2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023) will have all eyes on him: “I don’t want to be arrogant, I have a lot of respect for my opponents, but I really do everything to be number one and I want this gold medal. I really hope I don’t have any other metal around my neck or no medal at all.”, the former French full-contact boxing champion persists.
He knows that it is on the bike section that he has the most to lose, where falls and mechanical incidents can destroy any dream of a podium. “But, on paper, I proved in 2024 that I was still there. I have a cushion of about two minutes on my direct opponents, two minutes on a one-hour race, it’s a small comfortable gap, but we mustn’t fall asleep. And I don’t want to fall asleep in fact.”
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