Stuttgart (Germany) (AFP)

At the Rio Games, his shock injury had shattered his Olympic ambitions in an instant. Three years later, Samir Aït Saïd wrestled his Olympic-2020 ticket with his first world medal, bronze on rings, on Saturday in Stuttgart, Germany.

He wanted it so much, it has so much meaning that he kisses her again after receiving her on the podium, her eyes clouded with tears: this medal, synonymous with Olympic qualification, is worth much more than bronze for Aït Saïd, soon in his thirties.

"I'm on a little cloud," he smiled, "the competition was very tough, it was a very hot final, I'm so happy with that qualification."

It is the Olympic sesame, much more than the medal, even if it is his first at the world level, which is the happiness of the gymnast antiois.

For since August 6, 2016, the day of his appalling double fracture open tibia fibula that had left his right leg at the reception of a jump in Rio, the Olympics 2020 are the horizon that drives the specialist rings. This was the case the day after his injury, barely operated and still on a hospital bed. It has not left since.

- "I was scared" -

For Aït Saïd as for his coach Rodolphe Bouché, the tension was at its height around this final. Since the team failed to qualify for Tokyo on Monday, the 2013 European Champion of the Rings knew that his hello only passed through one of the three tickets reserved in each apparatus finals to the gymnasts whose country was not already trip to Japan. Out of eight finalists, there were five to claim. He pocketed the last (14,800), since it was preceded by the Turkish Ibrahim Colak (14,933) and the Italian Marco Lodadio (14,900), they too not qualified until then. At this little game, it is the defending Olympic champion, the Greek Eleftherios Petrounias, who lost big.

"I was scared, I was scared, I had a huge pressure since we got here," says Aït Saïd "I'm not going to lie: I was scared because I knew the stakes were huge that I did not have the right to make mistakes. "

"I knew it was possible but a stupidity could have deprived me of my Olympic dream," he says.

"The pressure has risen for five days, and it was at its peak this (Saturday) morning," Bouche confirms to AFP.

But Aït Saïd knew how to tame it. And beyond opening the doors of the Olympics 2020, this world bronze falls perfectly, at nine months of the Olympic high mass.

"We had said it several times: if there is a medal to be made, it is now," Bouche abounds. "We scored the spirits, we did not have to shake, we had to fight, we had to do it and I did it," said Aït Saïd.

And his little mistake during his movement was already nourishing his greatest dream. "Without this little downside, I was world champion, but it does not matter, I'll be an Olympic champion," he says.

If they are now three qualified Blues for Tokyo, with Loris Frasca and Cyril Tommasone (6th in the pommel final, with 14.833), Aït Saïd has brought to French gymnastics his first world medal in five years (Tommasone bronze pommel in 2011).

- 23 world medals for Biles -

The American champion Simone Biles is a great accustomed to the podium honors, but the one she won Saturday will have a special place in history: by winning the final jump (15.399), Simone Biles has equaled , at 22, the absolute record of world medals set by the Belarusian legend Vitaly Scherbo in the 1990s.

"I am proud of all my performances here, I have been regular, it was my goal of the season, and especially for these Worlds," she comments.

Admittedly, the asymmetrical bars have resisted (5th, with 14,700) but the US champion should seize this medal record alone on Sunday: he still has two finals to play, on the beam and the floor.

In the meantime, this league crown, his third in the German competition, and especially the 17th of his career, has further enriched his record for the highest number of world gold medals.

© 2019 AFP