French sweep men's Olympic BMX podium
Joris Daudet led a French clean sweep of the podium in men's Olympic BMX racing on Friday. His compatriots Sylvain Andre and Romain Mahieu took silver and bronze in front of an ecstatic home crowd in the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines stadium, finally winning the Olympic medals that had so long eluded them. The French have dominated BMX racing in recent decades, amassing 50 gold medals at world championships since 1982, and Daudet and Mahieu are first and second in the world rankings. At the Olympics, however, they had only bagged two medals - both by female riders - since the sport's debut in Beijing in 2008. With Dutchman Niek Kimmann unable to defend his Tokyo 2021 title due to illness and Tokyo silver medalist Kye Whyte of Britain hampered by a back injury, the French dominated their semi-finals. In the presence of French President Emmanuel Macron, the three French riders shot out of the starting ramp and maintained their lead throughout the final, zooming over the bumpy, winding course in a 1-2-3 formation like one blue-and-white streak. In the women's BMX race, Saya Sakakibara of Australia won gold, Manon Veenstra of the Netherlands took silver and Zoe Claessens of Switzerland claimed bronze. Sakakibara and Mahieu, who are dating each other, will go home with a medal each - one gold, one bronze - at the same Games and in the same discipline. (Reuters)