with Didier, Portal and Chardard, French para-swimming reaches the milestone of 10 medals – Libération

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That’s it, Guillaume Domingo must say to himself. Ahead of the Games, invited to the prediction by the media, the person responsible for para-swimming performance at the French Disabled Sports Federation proposed the following: “Winning around ten medals is reasonably possible but the competition is tough and the Olympics remain a special competition.” Tuesday evening, Ugo Didier and Alex Portal (both in silver), and Laurent Chardard (tanned, him) updated the counter. Ten medals altogether.

Ugo Didier was the first to line up, in the 100m backstroke in the S9 category. We hoped for a comeback, like the one he inflicted on August 29 in the 400m freestyle on his great rival, the Italian Simone Barlaam. But the Toulouse native did not manage to completely make up the delay after a very average start as is often the case, due to the weakness of his legs (he was born with club feet, atrophied muscles and without calves). Fourth at the turn, the licensee at Cugnaux but who also trains in the Dauphins du Toec club (Toulouse Olympique Employees Club) where he was able to rub shoulders with Léon Marchand, accelerated the pace, scraped places, but not enough : victory for the Belarusian Yahor Shchalkanau, who races under a neutral flag (1). But the 22-year-old engineering student is also a good accountant: “In Tokyo I was fourth, so it’s still a nice medal”. Still a win, in short. He still has the 200 medley on Thursday to win gold again.

Alex Portal, for his part, is not disappointed with his silver medal in the 200m medley, his final race in Paris. He smiles as he leaves the pool: “Three silver medals and one bronze [décrochées dans ces Jeux, ndlr]I’m not going to complain.”. Nothing to do with his reaction after his second place in the 400m freestyle in the S13 category (visual disabilities), from which he left in tears. It was already, again, facing the Ihar Boki monument. This Tuesday, the Belarusian swimmer once again demonstrated his stratospheric domination, in a race that he led from start to finish with a fluidity that was almost poetic: he slipped, he won. Result, a fifth gold medal in these Paris Games, his 21st Olympic title, which consolidates his rank as the most successful male para-athlete of all time.

Laurent Chardard is delighted with the bronze obtained in the 50m butterfly in the S6 category. Given his power, we nevertheless believed that the world champion would be able to stop the Chinese Jingang Wang. But he doesn’t have the memory of a goldfish and recalls: “I’m a little disappointed of course but in Tokyo, I finished fourth, so just to bring home a medal, I’m happy, and then there are my friends, my family who came from Reunion, even some guys work”. The swimmer from Pessac (Gironde), 39 years old, whom we met in June, is a sharer, who systematically emphasizes how much his loved ones counted in his convalescence and his new life: the surf fan had to have his legs amputated and right arm in 2016, following a shark attack in Reunion, his native island whose flag he flew in Paris La Défense Arena. He will return to action on Thursday, in the 100 meter freestyle.

(1) Russia and its ally Belarus were banned from the Olympic and Paralympic Games following the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Athletes were allowed to participate in competitions (but not ceremonies) under certain conditions, after investigation proving that they did not provide active support to the war in Ukraine.