The image had been around the world.
Lying on the ground, his face in his hands, his leg broken at right angles, Samir Aït Saïd suffered a spectacular injury in 2016 in Rio.
The gymnast had seen his Olympic dreams fly away after a poor landing on a jump and a double tibia-fibula fracture.
Already absent in London due to a previous injury, many had predicted the end of his career.
Samir Aït Saïd evacuated after his injury during the Rio Olympics, August 6, 2016. Antonin Thuillier, AFP
Five years later, the one who was appointed flag bearer of the French delegation alongside Clarisse Agbegnenou thumbed his nose at fate by performing a back somersault, Friday July 23, during the opening ceremony.
"It is a pride to carry a whole nation and a pseudo-revenge," commented the gymnast, whose rebound capacity and willpower are unanimously hailed.
What an entry into these Games!
The resilient somersault of Samir Aït Saïd, the colors 🇫🇷 floating proudly above a radiant Clarisse Agbegnenou, this collective force on the move ... images already engraved in the history of @ EquipeFRA!
pic.twitter.com/c1sdxfheGR
- FranceOlympique (@FranceOlympique) July 23, 2021
"I have stars in my eyes," he added, promising to "not scatter" and "stay focused on my job", the medal, as he begins his competition on Saturday the next day. of the opening ceremony.
"Flag bearer, it's magnificent, but I want to go there to be Olympic champion", he had already confided to AFP a month and a half before Tokyo, in the gymnasium of Antibes where he trains .
Despite the hardships, this rings specialist, European champion in 2013, is a symbol of resilience.
He always has a smile on his face.
"Life is a roller coaster", he used to say.
"We can have big blows of fate, the goal is to fight and achieve the objectives, no matter what," he insists.
🎙Example of courage and perseverance, the European champion @ samiraitsaid4 returns to the front of the stage after his injury during the Rio Games.
He is one of the 4 flag bearers who will take France this summer during the # Tokyo2020 Games #UneSeuleEquipe 🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/r2RCtQNxwc
- France Team (@EquipeFRA) July 9, 2021
The athlete, who also practices combat sports, is not in the habit of giving up.
"He's a 'denier'", sums up 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. .
But life continued to struggle.
After his terrible injury in Rio, Samir Aït Saïd lost his father, suffering from cancer, and his mother was the victim of an accident.
The gymnast even found himself in "financially tough".
"A life lesson"
In sporting terms, he returned to competition in 2017 and suffered a disappointment at the Montreal Worlds, where he finished fourth, 8 thousandths off the third step of the podium. In 2019, at the Stuttgart Worlds, he snatched the bronze and his qualification for the Tokyo Games. 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. It is "a strong personality", adds Yann Cucherat, former director of the high level male. "This is also what allows him to be a great champion," he says. In addition to being "tenacious" and "a guy of challenges ", physically" he is very strong, he has the fibers (muscle) of a sprinter ", also enlightens his coach.
In March, the tendon of one of his biceps cried "help", hence his absence from the European Championships at the end of April. But Samir Aït Saïd resumed training slowly and has since been using a blood occlusion technique, which allows the muscles to work "with lighter loads".
While the Olympics have been postponed for a year due to the pandemic, he is impatient at the idea of finally reaching his dream.
"A lot of people kind of buried me after Rio," he says.
While he hasn't forgotten the chilling images of his injury, he doesn't think about it all the time.
"I broke my leg, I was in the OR, they gave it to me straight, end," he explained to RMC Sport.
Beyond the pain, this fall has become a driving force.
He especially keeps in mind his failure: "I was touched not to have had my medal."
⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️ Have arrived in Tokyo at the Olympic Village, friends!
And you know what ?
Look at the view from my balcony… the Eiffel Tower ❤️🇫🇷!
A sign ????
pic.twitter.com/sKfVHYcEVE
- samir ait said (@ samiraitsaid4) July 20, 2021
In Tokyo, he will have as a rival on the rings the Greek Eleftherios Petrounias, reigning Olympic champion, also standard bearer of the delegation of his country.
In front of him, he hopes to keep the promise made to his father, who died in 2019, and to his daughter, born a few months ago: to become an Olympic medalist.
But this competition is not an end in itself.
The gymnast, born in Champigny-sur-Marne, intends to end his career in three years "where it all began", in Paris, during the Olympics-2024.
With AFP
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