Marie Patouillet gave it her all to win her final track cycling event at the Paralympic Games.
The Frenchman achieved his goal in the 3,000m individual pursuit in the C5 category, winning the first Paralympic gold medal of his career at the age of 36, adding to the silver he won a few days ago and the two bronze medals he won in Tokyo.
After completing her lap of honor in the velodrome, she spotted her wife, Soraya Garlanc, in the crowd, wearing a T-shirt bearing a picture of Patouillet’s face from her Pride rainbow-haired days.
The couple shared a congratulatory kiss as friends and family congratulated them.
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But then, such was the effort and the emotions that Patouillet exerted himself in a stuffy arena in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, near his hometown, that his knees were visibly shaking as the ceremony began.
Patouillet received such loud cheers from the home crowd that he nearly fainted just before his name was announced.
She asked the judges for help, but the first to help was Nicole Murray of New Zealand, who had just received her bronze medal.
Suddenly, a member of the French team ran towards the podium and a tournament official brought in a chair, just as Heidi Gauguin of France stepped up to receive her silver medal.
Patouillet only had time to sit for a few moments before she had to stand up to accept her gold medal, with staff supporting her.
She was still trembling, but sat up again when she received the obligatory follow-up prize of an adorable Freege mascot.
Bracing himself for further distress for Patouillet, live television cameras switched to the crowd, but then, as loud cheers erupted, the camera showed him, supported by Murray and Gaughan, rising to his feet for the playing of the national anthem.
The Paralympique: Marie Patouillet and Heidi Gauguin, L’Argent, L’Argent, L’Armes and the Pistes aux Etoiles
➡️ https://t.co/Egr3bsXRLK pic.twitter.com/eZpxAhQNN6— Le Parisien | Joe 🥇 (@leparisien2024) September 1, 2024
in Article from the official Paris 2024 websiteIt became clear that Garlank had led her to victory by saying beforehand, “This is the last lap. Don’t think about the podium, it has to be a magical lap.”
After the eventful ceremony, Patouillet said: “I still can’t believe it, firstly because of the collapse after the final and secondly because in my mind Heidi was the favourite to win.”
“She put in so much time this morning, I told myself: ‘Do what you can, you won’t have any regrets.'” She also repeated what her wife had said about making those last few laps “magical.”
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Speaking about feeling unwell, she added: “I think my determination pushed me a bit too far physically and the crowd lifted me beyond my capabilities and I stumbled a bit on the podium.”
Patouillet, who works as a doctor, is now focusing on the two road events: the individual time trial on Wednesday and the road race on Friday.
In a magazine interview before the Paralympics CosetteShe then turned her attention to life after the Olympics and spoke about her other passion: activism.
“My plan after that is to go back to medicine, but also to keep one foot in the fight against sexism and LGBTQIA-phobia. These are topics that are really close to my heart and that I don’t want to let go of, even if I stop playing competitive sports,” she said.
Patouillet’s gold medal is the fourth won by an LGBTQ athlete at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, following three gold medals won by Moran Samuel (Israel), Lauren Rowles (Great Britain) and Nikki Ayres (Australia) in the rowing event earlier on Sunday morning.
Team LGBTQ also won three silver medals (won by Patouillet, Irish cyclist Katie George-Dunlevy and U.S. long jumper Jalene Roberts) and two bronze medals (won by Canadian cyclist Kate O’Brien and Brazilian swimmer Patricia Pereira dos Santos).
The medals won so far, especially the gold, will place the LGBTQ team in 10th place, just below Italy, in the traditional medal standings by the end of competition on Sunday.
In terms of medal count, the LGBTQ team’s nine medals puts them tied with Germany and Thailand for 15th place. 169 countries will be participating in the Paris Paralympics, including neutral and refugee teams.
Source: Outsports – www.outsports.com
