Clarisse Agbegnenou has shown the way. Standard bearer at her side during the opening ceremony, the judokate was crowned Olympic champion last week. A golden role? Samir Aït-Saïd, on the other hand, showed all his ease that evening by performing a nice somersault, he would undoubtedly be satisfied with a medal. It must be said that his past would invite him to be cautious. Though…
Until Japan, its history with Olympic Games had thus been written with many scars. In 2012, first, the Ile-de-France, spotted at the age of 11 by the coach of the hopes of Antibes, had seriously injured his knee and was unable to participate in the London fortnight. First hard blow. Four years later, in Brazil, in front of cameras around the world, he broke his tibia-fibula on a landing. The image had been cold in the back, had undergone an operation on the spot and then had to follow up with a long rehabilitation. His career was clearly on hold, but determined, he never gave up. “The day after the operation, for me the preparation for Tokyo had already started. I was focused on going for this title ”, he would say later.
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This year, however, ” no horse “, says the person concerned. In Japan, after an Olympiad marked by his great return to his best level, by his strength of character and by his courage after the death of his father two years after Rio, the blue gymnast focused on the rings. It is his strong apparatus, the one on which he won eight titles of champion of France and one of European champion in 2013. Two years ago, in 2019, he even offered himself a world bronze on the rings in Stuttgart. .
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Samir Ait Saïd just after his terrible injury at the 2016 Olympic Games © AFP archives
This combat sports enthusiast has his place among the grown-ups ever since. He owes it to his determination, his impressive physical strength, “To its explosiveness”, according to one of his first trainers Philippe Carmona. The Frenchman has renewed himself, so he has sought to put all the assets on his side. He took up Brazilian jiu-jitsu, boxing, went to run on the track, improved his cardio even more …
“I asked if it was really to me that we wanted to talk …”
Qualified for this final after having achieved the third best score (score of 15.066, behind the Greek Eleftherios Petrounias at 15.333, and the Chinese Liu Yang at 15.300), Samir Aït-Said will not make any complex. For these Games, Antibois even designed a new sequence, which will now bear his name. The speech is clear: the flag bearer was beautiful, it is now well behind him. “I want to go get this medal. I was a flag bearer, it was a source of pride, an honor, but I came for a medal, being a flag bearer was an added bonus. “
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Samir Ait Said on the rings, in Tokyo. © AFP
At the time of the phone call to tell him the good news, he still had to repeat it twice … “I had a hard time believing it was really me (laughs). I asked Brigitte Henriques (the new president of the CNOSF) if it was indeed Samir Aït-Said to whom she wanted to speak… I thought that there was a mistake somewhere, I had trouble realizing. I wasn’t expecting it, I thought it was going to be Renaud (Lavillenie). “ Brigitte Henriques, she says of him that it is “A lesson in life all by itself. “
Return to Tokyo. To the rings. For the final, his new figure is an assumed choice. “It’s a risk-taking, but you have to know how to play … The competition remains the competition …” Embarrassed by an arm injury (one more) in the home stretch before the Olympics, Samir Aït-Saïd once again had to whip to get back on time. “Even on public holidays I worked, I didn’t stop, I had no time to waste”, said this young daddy with dazzling freshness.
He finally feels ready. “I am determined to fight, to go for this medal. I will have no regrets because I have prepared myself thoroughly, and I am thirsty for victories. Sorry for the expression, but I’m hungry, I’m hungry. It would be a great pride to bring back a medal. ” A splendid revenge, too.
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