We dreamed of this tricolor hero coming out of nowhere to offer the first medal to the French athletics team which fears a zero point from the Blues in these Olympics at home. The unknown guy who lowered his personal best in the series, came out of the semi-finals with the second best time of the entrants behind the reigning Olympic champion before getting on the podium at the end of a dream final in a wild Stade de France.
Athletics program Athletics results It was the perfect story... of which Clément Ducos was unable to write the ending. The 23-year-old Frenchman, who hammered home this week and for even longer with a few close friends, his confidence in his ability to shake up the hierarchy of the 400m hurdles, finished his final in fourth position. Without being able, despite his detachment before the start where he greeted the public who chanted his first name, to bring down one of the big names in the discipline: the podium of the discipline is the same as at the Tokyo Olympics, the American Rai Benjamin stealing the gold medal from Norwegian Karsten Warholm.
Beating Stéphane Diagana's French record might not have been enough The hurdler, who left to train in the United States in 2022, completed his lap in 47''76, faster than in the semi-final but slower than in the series (47''69), where he had lowered his best mark by almost six tenths. Ducos produced the second best performance of his career, and he would have had to beat Stéphane Diagana's French record by a tenth (47''37) to knock the Brazilian Alison dos Santos out of the box. A performance still out of his reach, despite a personal best reduced by almost two seconds this year.
“I’m really very disappointed, because I was aiming for a medal,” he said, in tears. I am proud, of course, to be fourth at the Olympics, but for the moment it is emotion that takes over. There are no regrets, I went all out. I make few mistakes. There was no pressure, I was a bit of an outsider. With the public, there was rather emulation. But there was someone stronger than me this evening (Friday). » It won't console him right away, but he has now made a name for himself and has references in the discipline. Clément Ducos, a large part of whose family had traveled for the occasion, stood out with his confidence and ambition. His week ended on a good evening. But to become a hero, you needed a huge one.
It's a media release that risks making a lot of noise in the United States four years with the Olympic Games being held in Los Angeles. Carl Lewis, living legend of the US sprint, nine times gold medalist at the Olympics between 1984 and 1996, spoke on X to rant and call on the American selection to question themselves. He even calls for a revolution after his compatriots' new failure in the men's 4x100m.
“It’s high time to blow up the system. This continues to be unacceptable. It's obvious that everyone at USATF (the American Federation) thinks more about politics than winning. No athlete should set foot on the track again and run a relay until everything is changed from floor to ceiling ,” wrote “King Karl” (63). A position which comes a few minutes after the disqualification of the American quartet and a completely failed handover between Coleman and Bednarek. Despite everything, American athletics is at the top of the athletics medal rankings with 29 medals, including 11 gold, 9 silver and 8 bronze.