When Cécile Hernandez, disabled Olympic champion on March 7 in Beijing in snowboard cross, turned around this Saturday April 9, around noon, to discover the cable car cabin in her image, she could not hold back her tears. On the three walls of a cabin of the main cable car at the station of Les Angles (Pyrénées-Orientales), his Olympic joy, gold medal on his lips, is now displayed to perpetuate this day of glory.
“It’s a lot of emotion. I am so proud to come back here to my station to bring them the medal. Proud to be a Pyrenean snowboarder and medalist because you can also be a ski champion by training here. This medal is also a bit theirs. They have always expressed their sympathy with me with kind words when I am on the estate. And this cable car cabin is really extraordinary. This photo mentalizes the fight that I lead for disabled sport, to always exceed its own limits, ”explains the champion who returned to Angles the day before, after three long weeks of post-title obligations.
She suffers from multiple sclerosis
Before winning on the Chinese snow, Cécile Hernandez, 47, already a silver and bronze medalist in the past, had to fight to obtain the right to line up in the Beijing Paralympic competitions, and thus bend the position of the IOC which had set up new categories of handicap by discipline. Almost in extremis, the lawyer of the Catalan, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, had been able to find the arguments to have her registration validated. And allow him to win the snowboard cross super-combined event.
“This medal is the absolute pride for the whole village. All the inhabitants feel concerned by this title of a champion always available. It is also recognition for the work we provide for the practice of high-level sport on the slopes and to promote access for the disabled to our ski area”, explains Michel Poudade, mayor of Les Angles and president of the Neiges Catalanes. The famous “Cécile Hernandez” cabin, a real selfie spot, will rotate every day when the resort reopens in summer and then during the next winter season.
