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2014 WINTER OLYMPICS

HOCKEY

Sweden down Czechs in Olympic hockey opener

Two goals by Erik Karlsson helped Sweden defeat the Czech Republic 4-2 in the opening game of the 2014 Winter Olympics hockey tournament on Wednesday.

Published: 12 February 2014 23:26 CET
Sweden down Czechs in Olympic hockey opener
Sweden celebrates a goal against the Czech Republic in the second period of Wednesday's game. Photo: AP

Sweden built a 4-0 lead then allowed the Czechs to score two straight goals in the middle period before holding on in the third for the Group C preliminary round victory at the Bolshoi Ice Dome.

"We came out really strong in the first and controlled the pace," said Karlsson. "Everybody did their job."

In the other game Wednesday night, Switzerland scored with just eight seconds left in the third period to beat Latvia 1-0 at the Shayba Arena.

Karlsson scored the opening goal of the 2014 men's tournament halfway through the first period while the Swedes had an extra attacker on the ice because of a delayed penalty to the Czechs.

Karlsson's shot from the point beat Czech goalie Jakub Kovar who was being screened by Sweden's Daniel Alfredsson. His second goal was also partly the result of a forward parked in front of the net screening the goaltender.

"The first one was a great screen. The second one was a great screen as well. I just hit the spot," Karlsson said.

"It feels nice to contribute with a couple of goals. Sometimes you just have to be in the right spot."

Henrik Zetterberg and Patrik Berglund also scored for Sweden who won the gold medal in 2006 in Turin.

Jaromir Jagr and Marek Zidlicky scored for the Czechs who are coming off their worst-ever Olympic outing, finishing in seventh place at Vancouver 2010.

Henrik Lundqvist was superb in goal for Sweden, stopping a total of 29 shots. The Czechs outshot Sweden 15-5 in the third period but Lundqvist closed the door.

"It was fun to be out there," Lundqvist said. "We got a really good start. After they scored their second goal things changed but I am happy with the way we regrouped."

Berglund gave the Swedes a 2-0 lead with 6:53 left in the second. Berglund skated across the blueline, chipped the puck off the boards to himself then beat Kovar with a slapshot to the blocker side.

RELATED: Sweden's ten best winter Olympic heroes

Czech coach Alois Hadamczik pulled starting goalie Kovar and replaced him with Alexander Salak after Zetterberg scored to make it 3-0 just 51 seconds into the second.

Hadamczik's decision to start Kovar in the first game of the tournament ahead of Ondrej Pavelec surprised some people. Winnipeg Jets goalie Pavelec didn't even dress for Wednesday's game.

Karlsson scored his second of the game to make it 4-0 just over four minutes into the second.

The goaltending switch appeared to spark the Czechs as Jagr and Zidlicky scored goals less than two minutes apart in the second to cut the Swedes lead to 4-2. Zidlicky scored after taking a drop pass from Patrik Elias and Jagr's one-handed backhand shot rolled off the far post and went in.

Simon Moser scored the only goal for the Swiss who hammered away at Latvian goaltender Edgars Masalskis throughout the game until they finally got the game winner in the final seconds.

Moser used teammate Nino Niederreiter as a screen as his shot went off Masalski's arm and into the net.

DON'T MISS: Hockey wasn't always Sweden's pride on ice
 

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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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