MONTIGNY-LE-BRETONNEUX, France (AP) — Joris Daudet joined teammates Sylvain Andre and Romain Mahieu in a wild celebration on the front stretch of the BMX track just outside of Paris on Friday night, where they were serenaded by fans — including French President Emmanuel Macron — after the first podium sweep for the home nation at the Summer Olympics in a century.
Then, the trio paraded around with flags. Took pictures. Hugged everybody in sight.
The riders had been in quite a hurry to reach the finish line. But they were suddenly in no hurry to leave the track.
“It’s hard to perform, you know, when it mattered,” said Daudet, the three-time and reigning world champion, who finally earned an Olympic medal. “But today we were able to do that. Yeah, it’s amazing. It’s a dream.”
The only rider who had a shot at breaking up the French podium was Cedric Butti of Switzerland, but he was held off by Mahieu over the final straight on the tightly twisting course. The three Frenchmen then ran back onto the track together, where Andre chucked his bike in celebration and all three threw their arms up in victory.
It had been a long time coming for the 33-year-old Daudet, who started riding when he was 9 years old in Saintes in the far west of France. He has won 12 medals at world championships but had never even made a final in three trips to the Olympics.
“My dream came true tonight,” he said, “for me to win gold, but also to share the podium with my friends.”
It was a dream night for Mahieu, too. His partner, Saya Sakakibara of Australia, won gold in the women’s race.
Kye Whyte was hoping to improve on his silver medal from Tokyo, but the Briton crashed heavily during his second semifinal race. The accident occurred just after riders came down the starting ramp, which means he would have been going about 56 kph (35 mph) when he hit the dirt. Whyte was able to move as he was loaded on a stretcher and taken away.
France has been the most successful nation in BMX racing, topping the U.S. for the most gold and total medals at the world championships. But the success has rarely translated to the Olympics. Its only medal had been the silver Laetitia Le Corguille won at the 2008 Beijing Games, when the sport made its Olympic debut.
But hopes were high after the trio of French riders dominated their heat races.
Andre, who was fourth at the Tokyo Games, won two of his heats and finished second in the other. Daudet and Mahieu, who won worlds the previous year, also won a pair of heats and finished third in their others.
Together, the trio topped the 16 riders who advanced to the semifinal rounds.
Of course, the Americans were right behind them.
Kamren Larsen finished in the top three of each of his heats, and Cameron Wood won a heat and finished second in another, and hopes were high that they might follow in the footsteps of Connor Fields, who won gold at the 2016 Rio Games.
Yet while the French dominated their semifinals, the Americans had trouble. Larsen crashed out of his second race, essentially eliminating him from contention, and Wood needed a second-place finish in his third semi to make the medal run.
Once there, he was caught behind the leaders at the start and was unable to make up the ground on them.
“Right now, obviously pretty devastated,” he said. “There’s all kinds of emotions I think, all at once. It’s taken everything I’ve had to get here. Get to this day, this moment. And obviously it didn’t go the way I wanted, but I’m proud of everything I did.”
“It’s just an unforgiving sport at times,” Wood added. “Just doing my best to focus on the process and the journey.”
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