Tokyo (AFP)

"This is the Phoenix, he will come back," said coach Florent Balesta.

A year after a triple fracture of his right ankle, Marseille skateboarder Vincent Matheron climbed to the final of the park event at the Tokyo Olympics on Thursday, where he finished 7th.

A rebirth in a discipline emerging at the Games.

Last summer, the Frenchman was confined and bedridden, his ankle in pieces after a heavy fall on a ramp at skate legend Tony Hawk.

A year later, it was with 15 screws, three pins and a few plates in the body that the French skateboarder set off in the bowl (bowl with relief) at the Ariake site.

If he finished 7th and penultimate in the final, which crowned the Australian Keegan Palmer, ahead of the Brazilian Pedro Barros and the American Cory Juneau, the 23-year-old Marseillais did not shy away from his pleasure.

Australian Keegan Palmer, first Olympic park champion, one of the two disciplines of skateboarding, August 5, 2021 at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Loic VENANCE AFP

"I'm happy to have arrived in the final. I was thinking of putting up a whole run. I fell on my tricks (tricks) three times than I usually do. These are my signings. I'm very happy for my friends on the podium, "said the skateboarder.

"You always have to think that I still have plates and pins on my ankle, which I will have removed in a month," he recalled.

"I come from much further than the others. I did a lot of rehabilitation to get to that moment" explained the one who is also captain of the France team at the Games.

- "In Paris, in enemy land!" -

Azure blue t-shirt like OM and helmet in the colors of France, Matheron, the only European in the final, first finished 7th in qualifying (74.07 points), after notably two good runs.

In the final, he had swapped his jersey for a white shirt, another color of his favorite club.

He fell on his first pass, then in the same spot on his second.

His third run also ended with a fall and a final score of 42.33 points.

Frenchman Vincent Matheron fell during his run in the park, one of the two disciplines of skateboarding, on August 5, 2021 at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Loic VENANCE AFP

Far from the heights reached by the young Keegan Palmer, 18, titled with 95.83 points.

Born in San Diego, California, he moved to Australia as a child and chose skateboarding after starting to surf.

Just like Vincent Matheron.

"I come from a boarding family. My father and my uncle were surfing and skateboarding. They taught me both," he told AFP at the end of June, at his home in Marseille.

The Marseillais started skateboarding at the age of four on the Prado bowl.

He now lives in California, a must-see for the best skaters in the world.

Vincent Matheron trains for the Tokyo Olympics at the Prado bowl in Marseille, June 24, 2021 CLEMENT MAHOUDEAU AFP / Archives

Upon his arrival in the United States, he was hosted by skate legend Tony Hawk.

Since "The Birdman" has taken him under his wing.

Matheron was skating at home when he was injured last year ...

The postponement of one year allowed him to be in Tokyo for his first Games which will undoubtedly not be the last.

"I think I will come back stronger and in Paris (JO-2024), I will be in enemy territory (laughs)", launched this great supporter of OM.

Skateboarder Vincent Matheron on the Pont des Arts, in Paris, January 30, 2019 Eric Feferberg AFP / Archives

In the meantime, the 2020 edition is already historic for him.

"As the first Frenchman and the first Marseillais in the bowl final, I can say + Forever the first!", Rejoiced Matheron, proud Phocaean and now Olympian like the club of his heart.

© 2021 AFP