On Monday 2 September, when Alexis Hanquinquant steps off the Pont Alexandre-III, it will have been exactly 1,843 days, or five years and two weeks, since anyone crossed the finish line before him. And once again, the Norman triathlete’s last defeat dates back to… a duathlon. On 17 August 2019, on the sidelines of the paratriathlon that served as a dress rehearsal before the Tokyo Games, the swimming event had to be cancelled. The culprit? The famous bacteria. E. coliwhich, this summer, almost jeopardised the Olympic events on the Seine. This did not prevent Alexis Hanquinquant from seeking gold in Tokyo Bay at the end of August 2021.
In Paris, he plans to swim. In March, the flag bearer made this clear to Emmanuel Macron, who had invited a handful of athletes to dine under the golden Elysée. “I said: ‘Look, there has never been a duathlon in the history of the Games’. I swim between 30 and 35 km a week, you can’t tell me that: ‘In the end, at the Games, it doesn’t make sense’”said the 38-year-old athlete., on the banks of the Seine, in Rouen, in mid-July.
As in other parasports, in paratriathlon athletes are classified according to disability categories. Alexis Hanquinquant competes in PTS4 (standing category, moderate handicap). In a duathlon, an athlete whose weak point is swimming but whose strong point is running would go from being an outsider to a favourite for a gold medal. “This would even call into question the medals”The former bricklayer who saw his right leg crushed on a building site in 2010 and had it amputated three years later is furious.
“I don’t want to fall asleep”
Aeolus and Helios were magnanimous. Starting from the Pont Alexandre-III, the race will include a 750m swim, followed by a 20km bike ride and a 5km run to finish. The six-time world champion and European champion (2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023) will have all eyes on him: “I don’t want to be arrogant, I have a lot of respect for my opponents, but I’m really doing everything I can to be number one and I want that gold medal. I sincerely hope I don’t have any other metal hanging around my neck or any medals.”, the former French full contact boxing champion persists.
He knows that it is on the bike where he has the most to lose, where falls and mechanical incidents can destroy any dream of a podium. “But on paper, in 2024 I proved that I was still there. I have a margin of about two minutes over my direct opponents, two minutes in a one-hour race, it’s a small and comfortable gap, but you don’t want to fall asleep. And I don’t really want to fall asleep. »
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