• Vincent Luis, triathlon favorite this Monday at the Tokyo Olympics, took only 13th place in the race. 

  • Another Olympic disappointment for him after Rio, where he was already hoping to reach the podium.

  • Disturbed by an improbable false start and not at his best, he was quick to feel that this race was eluding him. 

From our special correspondent in Tokyo,

Like a taste of déjà vu. From the outside, anyway. Favorite of the Tokyo Olympics triathlon run very early this Monday morning, Vincent Luis finished far, far from the podium. Thirteenth more than a minute behind Norwegian winner Kristian Blummenfelt, he therefore failed to erase the disappointment in Rio, where he took 7th place after having attacked the race on foot in the lead. His two world championship titles acquired since (2019 and 2020) had further strengthened his ambitions, but “the Games, there is a date and we must be ready. I was not, ”he admits.

However, we were convinced of the opposite, while in 2018, Luis had made a turn to 90 in the way he trained and he had never seemed so strong since.

This is precisely what makes him relativize this failure, after having taken all the same long minutes to digest.

“In Rio, I needed a medal to change my career, to transform my life.

She would not have been refused today of course, but I will continue to go to training with pleasure.

I have a more positive, more motivating philosophy of life and training.

"

"At my own pace, perhaps hoping to pick up the dead"

Focused on the Games, he was still supposed to break everything.

But a calf tear contracted in early June - without anyone being too aware of its severity - thwarted his plans.

Arrived in lack of benchmarks and with a sloppy end of preparation, he never felt in the game for the win.

No surprise to him.

“I felt the last few weeks that I was not at the level I needed for an Olympic medal.

And today, I lacked a speed to play with those in front, ”he debriefs, fatalistic.

The race got off to a bad start from the start, in fact, with the improbable burst of a boat at the moment of the gunshot which forced the athletes, after a violent effort, to turn around to start again in good shape and due form.

⚡💥 The presence of a boat on the water obliges the organizers to restart the men's triathlon event!



🇫🇷 Vincent Luis is one of the favorites for the title # Tokyo2020 #Olympic



Games Follow the Olympics live ▶ https://t.co/sufil7RauY pic.twitter.com/puYIGt92yY

- France tv sport (@francetvsport) July 25, 2021

“A false start is the first time that it has happened in my career.

It's a bit hard for the best swimmers, like me, because we always try to do the first 50-75 meters at 110% to break away and get the less comfortable ones out of our wave.

I had succeeded in doing so.

The second start was more complicated for me, it took me a while to get back to the front of the race.

The sensations were not great at first.

"

After deluding himself on the bike, where he tried to harden the race, Luis took a shine from the start of the 10 kilometer run.

"You feel right away that it's not going to do it," he describes.

I picked up on my own pace, hoping maybe to pick up the dead and see what happens.

It was a waste of time, the front runner never wavered.

His compatriot Dorian Coninx was in the first 3-4 terminals, before seeing the light go out suddenly.

“I was in my speed, I go ahead at one point, I say to myself 'damn, it's a good day'.

But it's deceptive with this heat.

Behind, a guy walks by, and I started to jump.

The rest was a long descent, ”he told the finish, livid.

Our dossier on the 2021 Olympics

Seventeenth on the line, he was only slightly ahead of the third tricolor in contention, Leo Bergère, suffocated by the heat and remained at the gates of the top 20. In the end, a nice slap for the Blues, who had all come for something else.

“Collective failure, the term is perhaps a little strong, estimates the DTN Benjamin Maze.

But we don't put anyone in the eight, that's a fact.

We hope to finish the girls' race (Tuesday) and the relay (Saturday) with less bitterness than this one.

"

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