French table-tennis brothers become unlikely Olympic stars

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00:00Selena Sykes is there for table tennis and the team event, the team event which

00:06has the host country in it and in the host country's team is a pair of

00:11brothers that by now everyone knows.

00:15That's right, François, they're very well-known here in France. Felix and

00:20Alexis Lebrun are teaming up with Simon Gauzy for a quarterfinal

00:26against Brazil in the team event in table tennis, as you probably have guessed.

00:31It's a team of three.

00:33It's a question of the best of five games.

00:37There's four singles matches and just the one double match for a best of five

00:42format. Whoever will be winning this one will be having a tough task

00:46ahead of them next because they will be facing China, who really are the ones

00:50to beat when it comes to table tennis.

00:52And this will also be, of course, a rematch between Felix Lebrun

00:56and Hugo Calderano from Brazil, who obviously fought it out

01:00for that bronze medal a few days ago.

01:02Obviously, we all know who came out on top of that one.

01:04It was Felix Lebrun.

01:06Felix Lebrun, just 17 years young, gets a bronze medal.

01:10What is it about this pair, these brothers, these siblings?

01:18There's something about them, isn't it, François?

01:19They just have this kind of energy and we always like to see a sibling duo

01:23in sport, don't we?

01:24I think it's been a while since,

01:26shall we say, maybe since the Manitou's of swimming that we've had a French pair

01:30of swirling of duos in sport.

01:33And obviously these two get the chance to play together,

01:36which is a real delight for spectators to see.

01:38Every time we've seen a Lebrun here at the Paris-Sud Arena,

01:42we've seen lots of French fans.

01:45I don't know if there's ever been such a fervor about table tennis in the past.

01:49Obviously, it's a massive sport in Asia.

01:51And also the Lebrun brothers also have more and more fans in Asia.

01:55Felix, in particular, is very well regarded in Asia,

01:59where table tennis is just an absolutely massive sport.

02:02There's also a lot of Asian fans here in general watching the table tennis.

02:06And obviously for Felix Lebrun, it was a historic bronze

02:09that he got in the table tennis, in the individual table tennis,

02:13because France hadn't had a medal in this event since 1992.

02:18So he's turning a lot of attention.

02:20Both of them are putting a lot of attention on the sport.

02:22It's maybe not one that is naturally followed a lot by French fans,

02:26but everyone is here in full fervor.

02:28And yeah, just a great duo, isn't it, Francois?

02:30And we'll be crossing to you for the results of that quarterfinal against Brazil.

02:36Many thanks, Selena Sykes, for that live update.

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