Since 2017, Laurent Thirionet is the manager of the French paracycling team. Having had a leg amputated at the age of 23 following a motorcycle accident, he took part in the Paralympic Games in Sydney (2000), Athens (2004), Beijing (2008) and London (2012), where he won seven medals, including two gold.
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This former architect for the urban community of Dunkirk looks back at the results of the Bleues and Bleus, who won seven medals, including three gold, on the track of the velodrome of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (Yvelines), from August 29 to September 1.
The track cycling events are over. What is your assessment?
It is exactly the same as what we had planned. Overall, it is a good result. The events in which we do not have medals were planned. It was either to stretch our legs, or to wait, or to test the machines. So it is very satisfying, even if there are some disappointments. In particular our women’s tandem who were unable to compete on Sunday, classified out of the race due to an incident.
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What happened?
After 30 meters, Elise [Delzenne] and Anne-Sophie [Centis] were eliminated. It’s very frustrating, horrible even. Anne-Sophie took her shoes off and communication between the two was poor. Elise thought there was a mechanical problem, like a loose wheel or a faulty pedal. She panicked and started riding on the grey part of the track. When you put both wheels on that, it’s a shot and disqualification. If, at that point, you don’t have any equipment breakage, you don’t start again.
They could have gone for a bronze medal without any problem. I hope they will remobilize with the road events and that they will be really excited at the start to show us some great things.
In team speed, the French finished just off the podium. It’s also disappointing…
We have been talking about this team speed for a while, but we have had trouble mobilizing our athletes for this event. We were beaten by three teams whose specialty is this. And who took the time to prepare for it. We have more rollers than sprinters. So, the logic is respected.
About three weeks ago, Dorian Foulon announced that he would not participate in this team race because it was scheduled for the day after the individual pursuit that he was supposed to do, and which he actually won. Was his absence a disadvantage?
If Dorian had been there, we wouldn’t have prepared it much more. Because the runners weren’t necessarily available at the same time. To participate in this event, you have to be present in the same training camps and we had a hard time mobilizing our athletes.
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The road races begin on Wednesday, September 4. What are the objectives?
In terms of number of victories, we are going to be a hit. You are going to see two or three gold medals on certain days.
You announced that the objective of paracycling was to bring back twenty medals to France at these Games. Is this still the case?
We will achieve our goal. If I tell you that we will win more than twenty medals, we will do it, because the planets will align. That’s for sure. If we do less, however, it will mean that we will have missed our Games. But if we have three punctures, four falls and a gastro epidemic in the team, it will obviously be difficult…
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