PARIS (AP) — The French women’s dream of an Olympic medal in gymnastics ended with falls and tears.
The collective meltdown in front of a buoyant Paris crowd saw the team crashing down to earth in qualifying. The defeat was brutal, and totally unexpected, for a group made of seasoned individuals boosted by the enthusiasm of an up-and-coming teenager.
“I feel really sad,” said Melanie de Jesus dos Santos, who has been training with Simone Biles in Texas over the past two years. “I feel like everything I did the last two, three years did not work out today. I feel like I’ve worked for nothing the past years.”
France finished 11th with a total of 158.797 points, well behind Biles’ United States and outside the eight qualifying spots for the final.
De Jesus dos Santos, the face of the French women’s program, also failed to qualify for the individual all-around final.
“Today was not my day,” she said, crying.
Her teammates — Marine Boyer, Coline Devillard, Morgane Osyssek and 16-year-old Ming Gherardi van Eijken — could not help her get out of the rut.
The French got off a poor start on uneven bars and never recovered.
“Maybe there was too much excitement before, and we ran out of juice on D-Day,” Osyssek said.
Expectations were high after last years’ bronze medal at the world championship, where France won its first team medal since 1950.
After Biles dazzled her fans with a stunning display on her return to the Olympics, the French women were treated to a rousing welcome. Chants of “Allez les Bleues, Allez Les Bleues” — the traditional song to cheer on France’s national teams — were ringing out across the gymnastics venue even before the team took to the performance area.
Cheers and applause became even louder when the athletes appeared. But the noise did not lift them up. They made mistakes on their three first events, including de Jesus dos Santos’ fall on uneven bars.
“It’s because I’m not strong in my head,” said the gymnast who has tried to follow in the footseps of Biles and started therapy. “I did not have any confidence today. I really tried to focus. I was here, but also wasn’t here. I tried to do my job. I tried to do gymnastics, but I wasn’t here.”
De Jesus dos Santos started to cry midway through the contest after she had several wobbles on the beam. She was comforted by her teammates while fans chanted “Melanie, Melanie!”
The French, however, continued to struggle, despite de Jesus dos Santos’ fine vault to conclude.
“We have all failed,” said Devillard, a triple European champion on vault. “We were ready. Maybe I was not enough stressed. There was something missing, I don’t know why. I never thought this would happen.”
Both Devillard and Osyssek mentioned an incident that happened during warmup but declined to give more details.
“For the moment I can’t really say too much,” Martine George, the coach overseeing the team’s Olympic preparations, told The Associated Press. “But yes, just before the match we had a problem at bars and sure it was destabilizing. It can’t be an excuse.”
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