silver for table tennis player Lucas Didier, the family’s fourth medal – Libération

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The step was too high, the equation unsolvable. Even before entering a boiling and packed room this Saturday, September 7, in hall 4 of the Porte de Versailles exhibition center, in the south of Paris, Lucas Didier knew well that the challenge offered to him was impossible for him: to make the one who never wavers waver, to unbolt the indestructible. Facing him, in the final of the S9 category was the Belgian Laurens Devos, 24 years old, double Paralympic champion, undefeated for more than seven years in the paras, and 413th in the world among the able-bodied. The Frenchman said he hoped “shake him up, at least, a little bit”. We didn’t really see it: shortly after 5 p.m., Laurens Devos won in three sets (9-11; 7-11; 7-11) and won his third consecutive Paralympic gold medal – he was only 16 years old when he won his first title, in Rio.

Lucas Didier did not take this frank defeat badly. Quite the contrary: earlier in the day, just after dismissing the Australian Ma Lin in five sets, he told us of his surprise, almost, at finding himself in the Paralympic final. His half, he had approached her “defeatist” with the simple objective of “stay on the playing area as long as possible” to take advantage of an audience he fears he’ll never find again – 7,000 people screaming your name and jumping at every point doesn’t happen every day.

Beyond guaranteed silver, the most prestigious medal brought back by the French para-table tennis delegation during these Games, qualification for the final therefore offered it above all a little half-hour of relief, a final rise in adrenaline, one last ovation. “This audience since the start of the Games is something crazy. We have the impression that each spectator has drunk a magic potionsmiled the experienced French Thu Kamkasomphou (55) after Didier’s semi-final. They are all there cheering us on non-stop for four hours, as soon as a Frenchman plays… I don’t know if we’ll ever experience that again.”

Parents confined to the swimming pool

This silver medal is also the fourth for the prolific Didier family. Over the last ten days, there has been a lot of talk about Ugo, the eldest of the siblings, who suffers from the same handicap (he was born with club feet and calf atrophy) and who has a string of podiums in swimming: a title on the 400 meter freestyle, two second places in the 100 meter backstroke, and 200 meter medley. With his silver medal, Lucas also made a name for himself.

Her only final, however, her parents followed her a few kilometers away, from the stands of the Arena de La Défense, where Ugo Didier is competing this Saturday evening (at 8:34 p.m.) in his last race of the Games, the mixed 4×100 m relay. free swimming. Do not see there any preference between their offspring: “I’m the one who sent them there, it stresses me out too much when they’re with meLucas Didier told us this Saturday late in the morning. They know how to do it: they keep one eye on my match on video, the other on the pool.”