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PARIS 2024 OLYMPICS

French diver laughs off ‘funny’ fall in front of Macron

A French international diver on Friday laughed off an embarrassing mishap in front of President Emmanuel Macron which saw him fall on the diving board and crash into the water at the inauguration of the aquatics centre for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Published: 5 April 2024 12:53 CEST
French diver laughs off 'funny' fall in front of Macron
French diver Alexis Jandard, who has qualified for the Paris Games, falling while diving during a demonstration alongside two qualified French divers, as the French President inaugurates the Olympic Aquatics Centre (CAO), a multifunctional venue for the Paris 2024 Olympics in Saint-Denis, on April 4, 2024. (Photo by Handout / METROPOLE DU GRAND PARIS / AFP)

Alexis Jandard, a two-time world championship minor medallist, has won widespread praise on social media for gamely mocking his own misfortune rather than silently retreating into a corner.

Jandard, performing a synchronised routine on the 3 metre board with two other divers during the ceremony, lost his footing while jumping, landed painfully on the board on his back and bottom and then splashed into the water.

“I am fine really! It’s superficial although it looks impressive on the images,” Jandard told BFMTV after waking up to discover Thursday’s mishap had become a viral meme overnight.

“The fall was ridiculous… it’s part of the game. If I look at the fall it’s funny.

“It’s something that happens to us in diving — not regularly but it’s not surprising. It happens in training sometimes, in competition. But there it was in front of the president during the inauguration of the pool. I told myself it was the worst moment!”

He said he had received a message from the president and the Minister of Sports Amelie Oudea-Castera had phoned him to ensure all was well.

Of the Olympics he added: “The objective is clear to get on the podium.”

Jandard had on Thursday evening already taken to Instagram with a smiles-filled video, telling followers they deserved a “little debrief” and acknowledging he had “fallen in front of the president of the republic, in front of all of France”.

“Have a laugh at me, because frankly I deserve it,” he said.

Jandard is to compete in Paris in the 3 metre synchronised event.

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PARIS 2024 OLYMPICS

Paris Olympics organisers deny athletes’ beds are ‘anti-sex’

They may be made of cardboard, but the beds at the athletes' village for this year's Paris Olympics have been chosen for their environmental credentials, not to prevent competitors having sex, organisers said.

Published: 18 May 2024 13:19 CEST
Paris Olympics organisers deny athletes' beds are 'anti-sex'

The clarification came after fresh reports that the beds, manufactured by Japanese company Airweave and already used during the Tokyo 2020 Games, were to deter athletes from jumping under the covers together in the City of Love.

“We know the media has had a lot of fun with this story since Tokyo 2020, but for Paris 2024 the choice of these beds for the Olympic and Paralympic Village is primarily linked to a wider ambition to ensure minimal environmental impact and a second life for all equipment,” a spokesman for the Paris Games told AFP.

The bed bases are made from recycled cardboard, but during a demonstration in July last year Airweave founder Motokuni Takaoka jumped on one of them and stressed that they “can support several people on top”.

The Paris Games spokesman underlined that “the quality of the furniture has been rigorously tested to ensure it is robust, comfortable and appropriate for all the athletes who will use it, and who span a very broad range of body types – from gymnasts to judokas”.

The fully modular Airweave beds can be customised to accommodate long and large body sizes, with the mattresses — made out of resin fibre — available with different firmness levels.

After the Games, the bed frames will be recycled while the mattresses and pillows will be donated to schools or associations.

Athletes will sleep in single beds, two or three to a room, in the village, a newly built complex close to the main athletics stadium in a northern suburb of the capital.

A report this week in the New York Post tabloid entitled “‘Anti-sex’ beds have arrived at Paris Olympics” was reported by other media and widely circulated on social media.

Similar claims went viral before the Tokyo Olympics, sometimes fanned by athletes themselves.

To debunk them, Irish gymnast Rhys McClenaghan filmed a video of himself jumping repeatedly on a bed to demonstrate their solidity.

At those Games, during the coronavirus pandemic, organisers, however, urged athletes to “avoid unnecessary forms of physical contact”.

In March, Laurent Dalard, in charge of first aid and health services at Paris 2024, said around 200,000 condoms for men and 20,000 for women will be made available at the athletes’ village during the Games.

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