Paris (AFP)

"He is a fighter, he will go and fight in + cages +" of MMA, loose his trainer.

At 31 years old, Samir Aït Saïd, flag bearer of the France team at the Tokyo Olympics, is a gymnast outside the framework, also practicing combat sports, like a career forged in the adversity that stumbles on the Olympics.

This rings specialist will enter the Olympic stadium in Tokyo on Friday as the Blues flag bearer alongside judoka Clarisse Agbegnenou.

The ad "put stars in his eyes", he says, after initially believing that there was a mistake about the person ...

For him, it's already a great way to erase the image of the Rio Games in 2016: his leg broken at right angles, double fracture tibia fibula, in front of the eyes of the whole world, during a landing of a jump in qualifying.

Four years earlier, he had been unable to participate in the London Games due to an injury already.

"Life is a roller coaster", he used to say, looking at the last years of his career.

"We can have big blows of fate, the goal is to fight and achieve the objectives, whatever the cost", he confided to AFP a month and a half before Tokyo, in the gymnasium of Antibes where he trains, under the eyes of his daughter born in March, of which he is crazy.

- "+ Denier +" -

"Flag bearer, it's magnificent but I want to go there to be Olympic champion", he takes care to specify.

The goal is THE Olympic medal.

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"He is a + niaqueur +", described to AFP his trainer since 2015 Rodolphe Bouché.

With a whole team, he got him back on his two feet a little over a year after his broken leg, with training on the sand, steps on the stairs, all this accompanied by a diet. .

For the gymnast, the period takes on the appearance of a "descent into hell".

He loses his father, his mother is the victim of an accident, and he finds himself "in the difficult financially" even if he obtains his diploma of physiotherapy.

In 2017, he returned to competition and suffered a disappointment at the Montreal Worlds, where he finished fourth, 8 thousandths from the third step of the podium.

In 2019, at the Worlds in Stuttgart (Germany), he snatched bronze and qualified for the Tokyo Games.

- Follower of MMA -

His career is far from straight.

"From point A to point B, with me it's never right," he summarizes, he who was European champion on the rings eight years ago, in 2013.

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For Brigitte Henriques, new patron of the French Olympic Committee, "it's a lesson in life all by itself".

"Willpower is his great quality", in addition to "his physical strength" and his "explosiveness", explains Philippe Carmona, a trainer who has known him since childhood.

Difficult to follow sometimes?

"A strong personality" for Yann Cucherat, former director of high level men.

"This is also what allows him to be a great champion," he adds.

In addition to being "tenacious" and "resilient", "a guy with challenges", physically "he is very strong, he has the (muscle) fibers of a sprinter", enlightens his coach.

His pronounced taste for combat sports, which he has practiced for a long time, also allows him to "seek resources elsewhere", adds Yann Cucherat.

This year, he has integrated boxing and Brazilian ju-jitsu into his preparation.

“Since I was a kid, I've always loved combat sports,” he explains. “I'm a fan of MMA (mixed martial arts), I have a lot of friends who are pro”.

This controversial sport which allows kicks, punches, knees and elbows, as well as ground kicks, strangulations and keys, and is practiced inside a cage, was legalized in France in 2020.

"But everything in its time," he tempers.

Before going "in cages" as his coach says, there is Tokyo, then Paris in 2024. Because he also wants to "win at home".

© 2021 AFP