Paralympics Games: The latest from the men's triathlon

FRANCE 24 English

Visit our website: http://www.france24.com  Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English  Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/France24_en

Transcript

00:00Paralympics are in full swing and we're going to get the very latest on that from our James Vecina

00:04who joins us now live from the Alexander III Bridge. James, there has just been another

00:10gold medal for France, tell us. Yes and not just one, France has been doing extremely well

00:17in the Paratriathlon Gini, extremely well, especially from Alexis Ongankong. He was widely

00:24expected to win gold, it's his second gold and he's just managed to wrap that up on the triathlon

00:29course here in the centre of Paris. The flag bearer for the French delegation goes on to win

00:36on home soil, doesn't get much better than that, winning in Paris 2024 for him. And just before

00:42that it was Jules Ribstein who also made it onto the first step of the podium. Ribstein,

00:47four times world champion but this time gets his first ever Olympic gold. Those two competing in

00:52the SL4 and TSL4 and two categories here in the triathlon, two categories that divide the athletes

00:59depending on their mobility from beneath the heads, depending on their limbs on either side

01:06of their bodies. And France just doing extremely well just generally in the triathlon. And that

01:11triathlon, just to give you an idea, was going through the same course that we saw the other

01:16athletes take during the Olympic Games just a couple of weeks ago. So that meant swimming in

01:20the River Seine, that River Seine swim that was supposed to take place two days ago was pushed

01:24back because of the bad weather. Then also cycling, going across the river on the bridge,

01:30the Alexandre III bridge behind us, and of course the running. Now a few differences

01:35in the triathlon to adapt to the parathletics, those being that the distances are halved,

01:41but then of course you'll also see some other differences come up along them. That includes

01:45guides for those who need it, visually impaired or do have difficulty seeing, have guides running

01:50along together with them. You'll also see handbikes in them and tandems also. That's not

01:56of course the only adaptations that are made throughout the course. It's also of course the

02:00use of prosthetic limbs and of course the athletes have to take the time just to change those from

02:06going from one event to another. They managed to do it extremely quickly and all this in front

02:09of crowds who gathered today. While it is the first day of schools for France back to school

02:14today, well crowds were here and are continuing to come to the events across Paris so far from

02:18what we've seen. Well James, what's the feeling been like would you say for the Paralympics? I

02:22mean is it very different than the Olympics a few weeks ago? What it is that if we talk about this

02:29morning and just of how it's been, that feel compared to the triathlon that we saw during

02:33the Olympics or during the marathon, very similar feeling. I mean this is of course a free event for

02:37people to come and see. You just have to walk up and come along and stand alongside barriers to

02:41cheer everyone on. And if we think about the feeling for that, well they were exactly the

02:46same chants as we saw before, the Allée des Bleus, all for the French team but also from everybody

02:51else in the world. And this is actually one of the points that's been I think quite interesting

02:54in comparison to the Olympics is that we've seen, from my perspective anyway, I've seen in a way more

03:00chanting even for the other teams, even for the other delegations. And this, whether it's in the

03:04swimming or from what we saw this morning, has been happening across the events and I think this

03:10is due to several factors. Some of those factors being of course curiousness, it's all very new to

03:15everyone and this excitement around it, just discovering something extremely new like that

03:19and being able to participate and take part in one of the first Paralympics for anybody

03:24watching here in Paris. So doing extremely well, we've still got of course quite a few days

03:28left, we're not halfway yet, but everything's supposed to be continuing in the same way

03:33throughout the second week of Paris 2024. Fantastic James, thank you so much for that.

03:38That's our sports editor James Vecino.

Category

Transcript

Recommended