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OLYMPICS

Sweden’s men reach ice hockey final in Sochi

The Swedes enjoyed a come-from-behind victory against the Finns in Friday's ice hockey semi-final at the Winter Olympics in Sochi.

Published: 21 February 2014 15:32 CET
Sweden's men reach ice hockey final in Sochi
The lineman pulls Sweden forward Jimmie Ericsson and Finland forward Olli Jokinen apart during the first period. Photo: TT
 
The men's team remained undefeated on Friday afternoon following a 2-1 thriller against Finland.   
 
Erik Karlsson scored a powerplay goal late in the second period as Sweden rallied from a 1-0 deficit to reach their first final since they won gold at Turin in 2006. The other goal was scored by Loui Eriksson, who netted two against Slovenia in the quarter final win.
 
 
Karlsson, with his tournament-leading eighth point, scored with 3:34 left in the second on a shot from the point. Finnish goaltender Kari Lehtonen got a piece of Karlsson's shot but not enough.
   
Finland has been beset by injuries and the news got worse prior to the game against Sweden when their top goaltender Tuukka Rask was taken off the roster for Friday's game.
   
Rask was replaced by Lehtonen, who finished with 23 saves. Finland was already missing their four top centres, including Saku Koivu and Aleksander Barkov.
   
Olli Jokinen opened the scoring for Finland 6:17 into the second period on a sharp angle shot that somehow squeezed through goalie Henrik Lundqvist's leg pads and trickled over the goal line.
   
Defenceman Sami Vatanen, who played a strong game for Finland, started the play by shooting the puck into the corner where Jokinen picked it up.    
 
Loui Eriksson's goal tied it up for Sweden, 1-1, five minutes later after being left alone at the side of the net.
   
Finnish defenceman Olli Maatta turned the puck over behind the net and Nicklas Backstrom got it out front to Jonathan Eriksson who quickly moved it to Eriksson who had an open net to shoot at.
   
Sweden finished the round robin with the best record and won its first four matches in this tournament: 4-2 against Czech Republic, 1-0 against Switzerland, 5-3 against Latvia and 5-0 against Slovenia.
   
Friday's semi-final marked the final Winter Games contest for all-time Olympic scoring leader Teemu Selanne, of Finland, who finished with 41 career points after adding four more from the Sochi Games.

 
The Swedes will meet either defending champions Canada or the United States in Sunday's final.
   
Sweden, who have won all five of their games in Sochi, have finished fifth or won the gold medal in their last half dozen Winter Olympics.
 
The final will be played on Sunday at 1pm, Swedish time. 
 

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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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