An alleged support on the inner line of the lane during the 400 meters in 2016, which according to him does not exist “without image” –, an injury that same year in the 100-meter semi-final that ruined what was to be “a formality” and the link slipping off his guide’s wrist 45 centimetres from the line as he led his 400-metre heat in 2021. All of his misadventures happened to Timothée Adolphe during the Paralympic Games.
In Paris, on Sunday 1stAhem In September he emerged as the big favourite in the T11 category for visually impaired people, where he had dominated the heat and the semi-finals. And while he and his guide Jeffrey Lami were finally heading towards a long-awaited coronation, Venezuelan competitor Enderson Santos González stepped up to the wire, beating his personal best to spoil the Frenchman’s party (50 s 58 against 50 s 75 for the Tricolor). “It’s a lot of disappointment and frustration. We didn’t have the career we wanted. I was the weak link in the couple.Timothée Adolphe reacted. We announced that we were going for gold. We wanted to live up to the public expectations. »
Eight years, three attempts and a series of bad luck that almost turned him into the sporting equivalent of Pierre Richard’s character in The Goat: “For a time, the white cheetah [le surnom donné par son ex-coach burundais Arthémon Hatungimana] turned into a black cat »he joked in mid-August in an interview with World.
A search that obsesses him
At the Stade de France, the French sprinter had only one goal: to break his Paralympic curse by finally winning his first gold medal. A quest that obsesses him. In 2019, this amateur rapper even sang about it in his song. Olympus : “My dream is not dead: to win gold. I will erase my drafts using the eraser.”
Five years later, Timothée Adolphe, six-time European champion and world champion in 2019, has still not added to his palmares the title that would crown his incredible career. The evening took a strange turn when the podium was postponed to Monday, following a complaint from the French clan, because their athlete had been towed by the Venezuelan guide. It was rejected, as was the appeal, by the race stewards. To tell the truth, the main interested party did not want it: “We know that disqualification is traumatic, we do not wish it. »
The title dreams are not over yet, as on Thursday 5 September he should have another chance in the 100m final. A race in which he is the current runner-up and where he is also the favourite with the best time of those entered in 2024, 11 s 05. We do not dare to predict anything anymore, perhaps the best way to rule out the scoumoune.
You have 50.01% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
