Olympic spirit

These Olympics seem to be focused on winners and gold medals, and Michael Phelps. Actually, I find the stories about those who did their best without any expectations to be much more interesting.

Last week, I finally caught some of the footage of the men's gymnastics and was amazed at Benoit Caranobe's floor routine.

benoit caranobe médaillé de bronze a la gym j o 2008 Vidéo cortit sélectionnée dans Sport

Benoit was having so much fun that he didn't realise he had won a medal.

From Les Dessous du Sport

Réalisez-vous votre exploit ?
C’est encore un peu flou, mais ça commence à venir. C’est une grande satisfaction pour moi et surtout une énorme surprise. Je veux maintenant savourer cette médaille.

Pourquoi une surprise ?
Mon objectif en arrivant à Pékin était d’entrer en finale au saut de cheval. Le concours général, c’était un plus. Je voulais réussir mes mouvements, conserver ma 9e place et me faire plaisir.

And Reuters

Caranobe too busy having fun to notice medal

By Sonia Oxley
Thu Aug 14, 2008

BEIJING (Reuters) - French gymnast Benoit Caranobe was so busy having fun in the all-around final on Thursday that he did not even realize he had won an Olympic bronze medal.

The 28-year-old went about his business almost unnoticed while all the focus was on Chinese Yang Wei's successful bid for gold and the remarkable comeback by Japan's Kohei Uchimura to snatch silver.

While favorites like German Fabian Hambuechen and South Korean Yang Tae-young were fluffing their lines, Caranobe was giving the performance of his life to become the first French gymnast to stand on the all-around podium for 88 years.

"My happiness is so tremendous, it was so unexpected that I believe that this medal is only going to sink in a little bit later," Caranobe told a news conference.

"I was not taking any notice of my scores or anyone else's scores, I only realized at the end that I had won a medal," he told reporters.

He first started gymnastics as a child alongside his triplet brother and sister. They gave up but he persevered, eventually helping France reach the men's team final here and qualifying in 10th place for the 24-man all-around event.

"This was my best ever performance," said Caranobe. "I thought it would be necessary for some other gymnasts to make errors for me to place among the top eight. I just wasn't thinking about a medal at all. It is an unbelievable feeling."

Caranobe said he had not even been aware that the last French medals in the Olympic all-around were Marcos Torres' silver and Jean Gounot's bronze in Antwerp in 1920.

He has the chance to grab a second medal in Monday's final for the vault, on which he was the top gymnast on Thursday with a score of 16.600.

The champagne is on ice for now.

"I can't really celebrate this evening as I still have to think about the vault final," he said.

"My next final is really close to my heart and I want to focus on it and to enjoy it.

(Editing by Keith Weir)

More from AFP and France2.





I'm astounded by attitudes that a silver medal means losing. One doesn't need a gold medal or a world record to be a winner.

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The weekend has been a relaxing one. I caught up with Sue D when we went to the farmers' market followed by our walk up Mount Painter with Kane. I postponed dinner with Kim, Declan and Nell until next Saturday (Kim was ill yesterday). I also meant to go to the cinema with Emily today, but opted to stay at home.