This fourth tricolor gold medal, the sixth in total, allows the Blues to temporarily climb to fourth place in the medal table, like four years ago in Pyeongchang.

And as in 2018, the athletes had to adapt to conditions far from conducive to "winter" games.

Because it was a heat wave that hit the cross-country skiing events on Wednesday, when temperatures in the neighboring city of Zhangjiakou hovered around 17°C.

A month ago, the blizzard and the dantesque temperatures had led to the postponement of certain events of the Olympic Games, in the same place.

This is still the case, but this time for opposite reasons.

The snowboard banked slalom events have been brought forward from Saturday to Friday due to a "high risk of rain and snowmelt".

Those of slalom in alpine skiing, scheduled for this weekend, will start earlier and the women's and men's events have been reversed and will take place respectively on Saturday and Sunday.

"Four Years of Hell"

On Wednesday, some cross-country skiers took part in the sprint... in t-shirts on artificial snow that had melted slightly in temperatures well above freezing.

But for Benjamin Daviet, it was above all the gold that warmed the heart, the day after the icy atmosphere aroused by the disappointment of a sixth place in the medium distance biathlon.

"I had so much anger in me for having done anything that I unloaded everything today. (...) it's so nice", savored the French standard bearer, who beat the 'German Marco Maier and Ukrainian Grygorii Vovchynskyi.

Revenge after a disappointing start to the Games and above all four years of sacrifice.

"I thank my fiancée for these four years of hell that I made her live. Because we only saw each other on weekends, and all that to prepare for the Games", he confided: "There, it's It's just a wonderful reward that I can give him and all my family because I'm not easy to live with, especially when I'm preparing for big deadlines like that."

For his part, Anthony Chalençon finished in fourth and last place in the final in the visually impaired category.

The event was dominated by legend Brian McKeever, 42, who won his 15th Paralympic title, the second in Beijing.

The Canadian veteran, already crowned in the 20 km classic two days earlier, can still equal the record of former German skier Gerd Schönfelder, who with 16 gold medals is the most successful Paralympic athlete in history.

For this, he will have to be crowned Saturday during the medium distance event.

Her compatriot Natalie Wilkie was crowned in the standing category.

Canada, with 16 medals including 7 titles, is now second in the medal table ahead of Ukraine (19.6 gold) and behind China (31.10 gold).

The Chinese gleaned four more charms on Wednesday, including two titles in the sitting category: in the men's category, Zheng Peng won his second gold medal of the Games, as did his compatriot Yang Hongqiong.

© 2022 AFP