Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

OLYMPICS

Norway handball gold eases Olympic dismay

A disappointing Olympics for Norway ended on a high note as the women’s handball team struck gold, following the shining example set earlier by retiring canoeist Eirik Verås Larsen.

Published: 13 August 2012 11:02 CEST
Norway handball gold eases Olympic dismay
Tonje Nøstvold, Kari Mette Johansen, Katrine Lunde Haraldsen and Amanda Kurtovic celebrate after winning the Olympic handball tournament on Saturday (Photo: Lise Åserud/Scanpix)

With two golds, one silver and one bronze, the Norwegian team failed to meet the goal of five to seven medals set by Olympiatoppen chief Jarle Aambø.

Not since Atlanta in 1996 has Norway left the Olympics with just two gold medals, and in terms of the total medal haul the Games turned out to be Norwayleast successful since Los Angeles in 1984.

For a number of the country’s main medal hopes, the London dream ended in despair.

After battling with injuries all season, javelin legend Andreas Thorkildsen failed in his bid for a third straight Olympic gold medal, instead having to content himself with sixth place.

Another strong medal candidate, skeet shooter Tore Brovold, had sought to improve on his silver medal from Beijing four years ago. But it wasn’t to be for the shooting veteran, who exited the competition at the qualification stage.

A string of other competitors also failed to live up to expectations.

Cross-country cyclist Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjå abandoned her race after suffering a crash and a puncture; the much-fancied rowers faltered in the semi-finals, while Star sailors Eivind Melleby and Petter Mørland Pedersen swallowed the bitter pill of a fourth-place finish.  

It wasn’t all bad news for Team Norway, however, with Alexander Kristoff taking a surprise bronze medal in the men’s cycling road race on the opening day of competition.

Then came one of the country’s most sensational medals of all time, when unknown fencer Bartosz Piasecki thrust his way to silver in the épée event.

Armchair sports fans had to wait another week for the next medal, but when it arrived it was of the gold variety. Ending his career on a supreme high, Eirik Verås Larsen paddled into the history books in the canoe sprint, repeating a feat he also achieved in Athens eight years earlier. The 36-year-old kayaker also has a bronze medal from Athens and a silver medal from Beijing.

Then came Saturday night’s drama, as the women’s handball team defeated Montenegro 26-23 to seal a second consecutive gold medal and send the country into much-needed raptures.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

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.

SHOW COMMENTS