PARIS (AP) — 0.100 point.
It was a ridiculously small margin, but it made all the difference and sent Samir Ait Said from euphoria to great sadness at the Paris Olympics on Sunday, as he again missed out on a bronze medal.
The French gymnast, who also ended fourth in the rings competition at the Tokyo Olympics, felt he had delivered a strong and clean routine on his favorite apparatus. After so many years of struggles, he thought that would be enough to finally put him on a podium.
Treated to raucous applause and cheers as he dismounted by sticking his full-twisting double layout, Ait Said yelled in delight and put his head between his hands, convinced that he had nailed it.
A few seconds later, his face fell. The 15.0 points he collected left him in fourth place behind Eleftherios Petrounias of Greece. Liu Yang claimed gold ahead of Zou Jingyuan for a Chinese 1-2.
Competing at his third Olympic Games, this time at home, the 34-year-old sat on his chair motionless for a long moment as his coach tried to give him comfort.
“I’m gutted and sad. I’m very surprised with my score, but I need to be careful when I speak,” he said, suggesting that judges did not deliver a fair verdict. “A lot of my opponents came to me afterwards to tell me they did not understand my score.”
After a career marred by serious injuries, Ait Said certainly hoped for a glorious ending in front of his home crowd. Back in 2012, he suffered three fractures to his right tibia after falling on the vault at the European championship and missed the London Games. Four years later in Rio de Janeiro, he was loaded onto a stretcher with a fractured left tibia and fibula.
Ait Said said the disappointment of missing out on an Olympic medal was even worse than in Tokyo, where a biceps injury damaged his chances of a medal.
“Here, I had nothing to complain about, I’m in top shape. I’ve never felt so strong in my life, and I’ve failed,” he said. “I have no excuse. The only loser here, it’s me.”
Ait Said was the only Frenchman competing in artistic gymnastics after the men’s team failed to qualify. His fourth place capped a miserable campaign for the host country after the women’s team crashed out in qualifying and no one on the team advanced to the apparatus finals in Paris.
Ait Said, a rings bronze medalist in 2019, had earned his individual spot in Paris through the World Cup circuit. Trying to leave the huge disappointment behind, he promised he will keep on chasing that elusive medal he is craving so much:
“I had pledged to come back for Rio. I had pledged to come back for Paris. I will be in Los Angeles, I’m in for another four years.”
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AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
