Samuel Ikpefan, Richardson Viano and Yohan Goutt-Gonçalves were born in France but chose to represent another country at the Olympics.
They do not dream of medals but contribute to illustrate the Olympic legend of amateurism and universalism.
From our special correspondent in Beijing,
Intellectual laziness could have led us to attack this paper with a good old clichetos on Rasta Rockett, but do not count on us to fall into the trap.
No, we are going to do it differently: the three athletes we are going to talk to you about today will probably not have the honors of the podiums and the glory of the projos during these Winter Olympics, yet their history is at least as interesting. , if not more, than that of the great favorites whose ears we are going to beat you to.
Samuel Ikpefan, Richardson Viano and Yohan Goutt-Gonçalves all have in common that they are French, by birth or adoption, and that they take part in the Games under the banner of nations that will be described as exotic and not really concerned by the winter sports.
The first city, which is on the track of Zangjiakou in cross-country skiing this Tuesday (73rd of the sprint), became the first Nigerian in history to participate in the Winter Olympics, ditto for Richardson Viano who will represent Haiti in alpine skiing on February 11, while the Franco-Timorese Yohan Goutt-Goncalves acts as a big brother, from the top of his two previous Olympic experiences in Sochi (2014) and Pyeongchang (2018), also in alpine.
Ifpekan, skiing rather than football
The story between Nigeria and Samuel Ikpefan, 29, from Annemasse in Haute-Savoie, also began with a phone call and a hint of a hoax.
After taking his first steps as a cross-country skier at the Annecy hopefuls pole and sacrificing a career in football (Sochaux, Grenoble and OL made eyes at him at one time), the brother of the Section Paloise rugby player, Daniel Ikpefan , ends up storing his skis at the back of the closet when he realizes that the doors of the France team are double-locked.
Before picking up his phone, three years later, and contacting the Nigerian Ski Federation which, to his great astonishment, has quite a few FIS licensees.
The thing is that most of them only registered to scratch the privileges offered by this precious FIS sesame (free trips, mainly).
“When it was my turn to ask for one, they were skeptical as it had been done to them upside down several times.
They told me "It's good, it's a fake, we know".
Except that not at all.
So, to prove the seriousness of his approach, he sends photos and videos of him on skis.
Still not convinced, but knowing that he also practiced wheel-skiing in the summer, the only way to train in the absence of snow, the secretary general of the Fed made him an offer.
The cross-country skier says: "He said to me, 'you know what, bring your roller-skiing equipment here and we can see if you're telling the truth.'
At the time, I'm laughing inside but I say to myself "ok, let's go" (laughs).
»
Samuel Ikpefan arrives in Lagos with his gear and finds himself doing a wheel ski demo in a stadium in the city where federal officials, journalists and a lot of curious people are waiting for him who have seen light and came in to watch the show.
This time it's in the pocket.
Very happy to finally have to deal with a serious guy, the federation then sets in motion the media machine to talk about her foal.
"I went on the radio and last year they even did a live report on a national channel, with my father, who went to retire there," he says.
On Tuesday, he will set off on the frozen track of Zangjiakou with the idea of making people talk about him in the land of his ancestors and, why not, to make young people want to follow in his footsteps.
Even if it means starting with roller-skiing.
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A post shared by Ikpefan Samuel Uduigwome (@ikpefansamuel)
Richardson Vianno, the phone call of the Haitian federation
Adopted by an Italian family living in Briançon, in the Hautes-Alpes, at the age of three, Richardson was put on skis just three weeks after arriving in France.
Hello Transition!
It must be said that with a mountain guide father, the probability that he would swallow powder snow was higher than seeing him break through at Basque pelota.
What followed was classic: ski school at Puit-Saint-Vincent, in the Pays des Ecrins, first training, first dives, then departure for Savoie at the age of 15, "to have better slopes and better training ".
If he then dreams of joining the France team, his level does not allow him to make the cut.
“Around 15-16, that's where everything is decided, either you're good and you continue at a high level, or you stop.
This year,
I didn't get the results I needed, and I was about to quit skiing.
»
Until the phone call from Jean-Pierre Roy, this Franco-Haitian president of the Haitian ski federation.
At the time, the kid thinks that we are making fun of him: “For me, it was a joke.
I had never heard of a ski federation in Haiti (laughs)!
I gave her my mother's number anyway, telling her to check with her.
The following weekend, I go home, we end up calling him back and we realize that it is very serious.
As it was complicated for me vis-à-vis the French team, I said to myself why not try the adventure, which would also allow me to reconnect with my country of origin.
»
Supported by the private Orsatus Team, which accompanies athletes from all over the world, Richardson Viano trains in Brides-les-Bains, in Savoie.
“Without that I would have had to train on my own and I would never have been able to realize my dream of making the Olympics.
I'm very happy with them, they work well, it's very professional, it's not a summer camp.
Two years after the famous phone call, here he is in China accompanied by his mother and a dozen people from the Haitian delegation.
It was worth picking up.
Goutt-Gonçalves, Timor since childhood
Unlike the other two, Yohann Goutt-Gonçalves never considered running for France.
His family story and his attachment to the history of Timor Leste (or East Timor) meant that, from the age of 8, the case was settled.
“There are kids who dream of being a footballer, for me it was to represent this small country.
And since my passion was skiing, I decided that would be the way I would do it,” he says.
Like his uncles, "fighters there when Timor was a Portuguese colony" and his grandmother "who hid and protected priests because there was a repression against Christians at the time", the skier also wanted to “bring [his] stone to the building and do something good” for the country of his ancestors.
The problem is that we had to start from scratch in a country that has never seen a snowflake fall.
“The word 'snow' doesn't even exist in the local dialect,” he tells us.
So, with his mother, Yohann Goutt-Gonçalves created the ski federation from scratch by rummaging right and left in the statutes of his foreign counterparts.
If he is the only licensee, he hopes to give ideas to others in the future.
It must be said that in the country, his name is no longer unknown to the battalion.
With two experiences at the Winter Olympics in his hands, in Sochi (2014) and Pyeongchang (2018), the native of Suresnes, in the Hauts-de-Seine, has already won his bet to put Timor on the world map of winter sports.
This background allows him today to give his friends from the small nations a logistical or administrative touch, within the Exotic ski team.
“It allows us all to reach our goal by being united because, for most of us, we are the only ones to represent our countries, so we try to unite to live our dreams together.
His, like that of Richardson Viano, begins on February 11, during the giant slalom in Yanqing.
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A post shared by Yohan G Goutt (@yohangoutt)
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Winter Olympics 2022
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