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OLYMPICS

Sweden defends curling gold

The Swedish women's curling team, the reigning Olympic champions, triumphed over Canada 7-6 in the curling final on Friday after forcing an extra end when defeat seemed imminent.

Published: 27 February 2010 10:13 CET
Sweden defends curling gold

“It was an extraordinary game,” Swedish skipper Anette Norberg told AFP news agency, adding that winning back-to-back Olympic gold was a long-held dream.

“That was the goal four years ago. We had a great week but we weren’t happy just being in the final.”

The Canadian women were on the verge of thwarting the Swedes after taking a two-point lead into the tenth end, but Sweden stayed cool to draw level before sealing the match in the 11th, silencing a sold out stadium at the Vancouver Olympic Centre.

In a tight match, Sweden led 4-2 at the break but the host nation then edged ahead, going into the tenth with a 6-4 lead in front of a stadium packed with home fans.

Even after being taken into an 11th end, Canada had a golden chance to win but skipper Cheryl Bernard, who blamed herself for failing to seal victory, was unable to make the last shot of the match count.

It sparked wild celebrations in the Swedish camp as King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia looked on.

Canada, supported by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, romped through their qualifying group, with eight wins out of nine, before beating Switzerland in the semi-final.

Sweden had seven wins and beat China in their last-four clash. Norberg said she was proud of her team, whom she described as sisters, saying the Swedish felt they had nothing to lose when trailing by two going into the tenth.

When asked what was going through her mind on Bernard’s last shot, she said: “Actually, I didn’t think at all but I heard them sweeping all the way down so I understood it was curling a lot and there was a spot where it curled a lot as well so suddenly I understood that maybe she wasn’t going to do it.”

It was the second consecutive Olympic gold for Norberg, Eva Lund, Cathrine Lindahl and Anna Le Moine.

A visibly upset Bernard said: “Two shots. I had two shots to win (at ends 10 and 11). You couldn’t ask any more of your team and they left them for me and I didn’t make them.

“We’re going to realise that this was a good feat eventually, the silver, but it’s going to take a little bit to get over the loss of the gold, which was so close.”

Earlier, world champions China took their first Olympic Games curling medal with a crushing 12-6 victory over Switzerland in the bronze medal match.

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SPORT

The French Paralympic star who survived war, grief and mutilation

The Paralympics is full of stories of disabled athletes overcoming the odds to achieve sporting greatness but few bear the trauma of Jean-Baptiste Alaize.

Published: 28 August 2020 10:06 CEST
The French Paralympic star who survived war, grief and mutilation
Jean-Baptiste Alaize training in Antibes. All photos: AFP

The 29-year-old French sprinter and long-jumper, who features in Netflix documentary Rising Phoenix released on Wednesday, was just three years old when he lost his right leg.

Not by accident or illness but by the brutal hack of a machete.

A child caught up in the civil war in Burundi in October 1994, he watched as his mother was beheaded.

“For years, every time I closed my eyes, I had flashes. I saw my mother being executed in front of me,” he tells AFP after a training session in Antibes, running his finger across his throat.

The killers left the Tutsi boy for dead. Alaize carries a large scar on his back but he was also slashed across the neck, right arm and right leg by his Hutu neighbours.

He woke up in hospital several days later, alive but missing the lower part of his right leg which had had to be amputated.

“With my mother, we ran, we ran, but we didn't manage to run far,” he says. “We were executed 40 metres from the house.”

A decade later, after coming to France in 1998 and being adopted by a French family, he joined the athletics club in Drôme.

Fitted with a prosthetic limb, he discovered that running gave him his first night without a nightmare since the attack.

“From my first steps on the track, I had the impression that I had to run as long as possible, so as not to be caught,” says Alaize who now lives in Miami.

“I remember like it was yesterday my first night after this session, it was… wow! I had cleared my mind. I was free.

“My energy, my hatred, were focussed on the track. I understood that sport could be my therapy.”

He tried horseback riding and enjoyed it, reaching level six, out of seven, until he pulled the plug.

“It was my horse that let off steam and not me,” he laughs.

The psychologist did not work out either.

“She made me make circles and squares. After a few sessions I told her that I wanted to change my method.”

However he did click with his school physical education teacher, who directed him to athletics after he had anchored his team to a spectacular “comeback” win in a 4×100 metre relay.

His classmates had no idea he was an amputee. He had hidden it to avoid teasing and more racial abuse.

“I was called 'bamboula', dirty negro, the monkey. It was hard.”

Fortunately, the Alaize family, who adopted him after he had spent five years in a Bujumbura orphanage where his father had abandoned him, gave Jean-Baptiste a base and a home that he had not had for years.

“When I arrived here I didn't know it was possible,” he said.

“I had lost that side, to be loved. I still can't understand how racism can set in, when I see my parents who are white, and I am a black child… they loved me like a child.”

His parents, Robert and Daniele, had already adopted a Hutu child from Rwanda, renamed Julien.

John-Baptist was originally called Mugisha. It means “the lucky child” which is not quite how things worked out. His new family name, though, suits him better. Alaize is a pun in French for 'a l'aise' – at ease.

The French disabled sports federation spotted the prodigy, and he began collecting his first trophies, including four junior world titles at long jump, three of them with world records.

“It was starting to change my life and I was happy to represent France,” he says.

He went to the Paralympic Games in London (2012) and Rio (2016), where he finished fifth in the long jump, just five centimetres short of the bronze medal.

Now armed with his state-of-the-art prosthesis, which he nicknamed Bugatti, he was dreaming of taking a step up at Tokyo 2020 and going home to France with a medal but the postponement of the Games has decimated his sponsorships.

“I'm still looking to compete at Tokyo 2021 or 2022 and Paris 2024,” he says.

“If I don't succeed, I will have to turn the page which would be sad.”

He hopes that Rising Phoenix will raise his profile and maybe attract some sponsors.

The documentary's producer Ian Bonhote is in no doubt that Alaize's star is rising.

“He bursts through the screen. His story will resonate,” he says.

“The nine athletes in our documentary all have different backgrounds, but none survived what Jean-Baptiste suffered. His disability was imposed on him in such a savage and violent way.”

Rising Pheonix is available now to view on Netflix.

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