Tokyo (AFP)

At 19, the placid Althéa Laurin already has an Olympic bronze medal around her neck, after her victorious fight on Tuesday in Tokyo in the 67 kg category, a nod of fate for the one who started taekwondo on a misunderstanding, so that she was supposed to do karate.

The young woman likes to recall this anecdote: at the age of seven when she had to register in karate in Épinay-sur-Seine, a problem in the queue directed her to taekwondo.

An error of course which however put her on the right track: the one which led her to a European title in December 2020 in Sarajevo then to Olympic bronze seven months later in Tokyo.

Beaten in the semi-finals, the young and slender French (1.87 m) calm Olympian, was able to re-mobilize against the Ivorian draft Aminata Charlene Traoré to win one of the two bronze medals at stake in this tournament (+ 67 kg).

All under the eyes of Pascal Gentil, double French Olympic bronze medalist in 2000 and 2004.

Coming out of his fight, his long closed face had given way to a broad smile.

"I think the emotion will come when I have the medal around my neck. I think I do not yet realize what is happening," said the young woman.

"But I still have this bitterness of not having won the Olympic final," she regretted, however.

This place on the podium still comes as a reward for a very good run, during which the Frenchwoman notably dismissed in the quarters the Chinese Zheng Shuyin, reigning Olympic champion (14-6), before offering a good resistance in the semi-finals to the Serbian Milica Mandic (7-5), crowned in 2012 in London.

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After her defeat in the semi-finals, the Frenchwoman returned to the fight "thanks to the words of (her) relatives, to messages of support from all the athletes of the French taekwondo team who have been there before like Gwladys Epangue (note: bronze medalist at the 2008 Beijing Olympics) and Yasmina Aziez (editor's note: bronze medalist at the 2009 Worlds): "they told me not to miss this great opportunity."

- Gold in the sights in 2024 -

With this eighth Olympic medal in the history of French taekwondo, the licensee from Asnières continued the tradition.

Since the discipline was introduced at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, the French taekwondo team has indeed always won at least one medal at the Games, however failing in its quest for gold.

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Olympic gold is the goal that Althéa Laurin will now aim for, during the Olympics-2024 at home in Paris, where she is also pursuing management studies at the Sorbonne.

The Games in three years "give him an appetite and the desire to progress further."

"I did not achieve the result I wanted, but before talking about the Games, we still have to qualify and win competitions and that goes through progression," insisted the young Frenchwoman.

Her first name, Althéa, is also the other name for hibiscus, a shrub whose flowers usually last only a day.

There is no doubt that with her precocity and her talent, the flowering of Althéa Laurin will not be without tomorrow.

© 2021 AFP