Both skiers will lead the parade of the Blues at the Games opening ceremony, Friday, Feb. 4 in Beijing. The biathlete Benjamin Daviet will he, the bearer of the Paralympic delegation.
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The flag bearers of the French delegation for the Olympic Games (OG) Winter Beijing (from February 4 to 20) are now known. As for the Tokyo Games in the summer of 2021, this is a duo, a man and a woman, whose names were revealed Wednesday, January 26 on the set of the show “All Sport” ( France 3). Kevin Rolland (freestyle) and Tessa Worley (alpine skiing) will therefore have the honor and responsibility to open the parade of the Blues in the Beijing National Stadium, Friday, February 4, for the opening ceremony.
Both were nominated by their peers Olympians, “ambassadors” from the three Olympic Winter Federations (skiing, ice sports and ice hockey), themselves subject to a vote of the general public aware in December 2021 on social networks of the team of France. The delegation tricolor in Beijing consists of 88 athletes (there were 108 in Pyeongchang, South Korea, 2018) which, before setting out the medals, will especially avoid the trap of Covid-19.
Rolland and Worley are names that speak in the white circus. The first is a miracle. Bronze medalist in halfpipe (half-pipe in which skiers must perform acrobatic figures) to Sochi Games (Russia, 2014), the Savoy is seriously injured May 2, 2019 in La Plagne as he tries to fight the world record for the highest jump from a springboard of over ten meters. The fall is terrible. Result: three days of coma and multiple fractures, including basin
Three months of hospitalization
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The champion says in a documentary, Resilience, released January 25 on Eurosport , how he went through the trials of three months of hospitalization, convalescence, his rehabilitation. And especially how he got in mind to try, at age 32, his bet a little crazy to win in Beijing, three years after his terrible accident, a new Olympic podium.
Tessa Worley is it, the women’s alpine locomotive. The Bornandine – 32 years also – do not hide: she competed in her last Olympic Games. Injured her knee just before Sochi, just next to his skiing (7 th Giant) four years later in South Korea, she arrived in Beijing with full confidence.
The double world champion in giant slalom (2013 and 2017) won the fifth victory of his career in Lienz (Austria) in late December 2021, and has since increased the podium. Best – even unique – medal chance in the Blue skiing, Tessa Worley may Yanqing on track to end a form of “curse” Olympic
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At the ceremony of the Beijing Paralympic Games (from 4 to 13 March) is Benjamin Daviet bringing only the French flag. The blue delegation has in its ranks a representative: the eight-time Olympic champion Marie Bochet (alpine skiing), already-bearer to Pyongchang 2018
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The biathlete born Annecy, already crowned three times in South Korea, will have the opportunity to pursue a beautiful adventure started there ten years, while he was still plumber.