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SWIMMING

Swim champ Britta Steffen makes shock withdrawal

Olympic title-holder Britta Steffen pulled out of the world championships in Shanghai on Thursday after struggling in the women's 100m freestyle heats, depriving the competition of one of its brightest stars.

Published: 28 July 2011 09:29 CEST
Swim champ Britta Steffen makes shock withdrawal
Photo: DPA

The double world and Olympic champion withdrew after scraping into the semi-finals with the lowest qualifying time of 54.86sec, nearly two seconds off her 2009 world record of 52.07.

Steffen, who claimed the 50m and 100m freestyle double at the Beijing Olympics and repeated the feat at the 2009 world championships, was at a loss to explain her poor performance.

“I gave everything – I had no more to give,” she said. “I can’t explain it. I was in great shape and very optimistic. I’m in good health. I would give you answers if I had them.”

Steffen, 27, led Germany to bronze in the 4x100m freestyle relay in her only other performance in Shanghai. She had been due to take part in the 50m freestyle on Saturday.

Coach Norbert Warnatzsch said he needed to “protect” Steffen, who suffered sinus problems last year before making a low-key return in November.

“She will not do any further starts,” said Warnatzsch. “We have to protect her.”

Steffen had been expected to spearhead Germany’s challenge alongside her partner Paul Biedermann, who has also lost both of his 2009 world titles in the 200m and 400m freestyle.

Meanwhile America’s Ryan Lochte continued his charge with fourth place in the 200m backstroke heats as he aims to build on his 200m freestyle win, when he shocked superstar team-mate Michael Phelps.

The two will go head-to-head again later Thursday in the 200m individual medley, when Olympic champion Phelps will try to keep alive his hopes for a second straight five-victory haul.

Japan’s Olympic title-holder Kosuke Kitajima safely reached the 200m breaststroke semi-finals as he bids to reclaim his 2007 world title after skipping the Rome championships.

America’s Rebecca Soni, tipped as a challenger for the 200m breaststroke world record, topped the heats in 2:23.30, trailing Annamay Pierse’s 2009 mark of 2:20.12. Soni has already won 100m breaststroke gold.

In Thursday’s other finals, Australia’s James Magnussen, 20, is favourite for the men’s 100m freestyle and team-mates Jessicah Schipper and Stephanie Rice will both challenge for the 200m butterfly title.

World record-holders China will be hopeful of claiming their fourth swimming gold in Shanghai by successively defending their women’s 4x200m freestyle title.

AFP/mry

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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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