History to mark the spirits, France does not do like everyone else.
At the time of the entry of the French delegation on the track of the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo to parade, one of the two flag bearers, Samir Aït-Saïd wanted to show that he was in shape to start the Olympics.
After leaving the flag to judokate Clarisse Agbegnenou, Olympic vice-champion, the gymnast made the group stop for a few moments before stepping back and jumping in the air to turn back.
A spectacular and unexpected back flip for viewers
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The performance is not the result of improvisation.
A priori, the feat was expected if we judge the space left all around him.
After being applauded by the assembly and by the French Head of State, Emmanuel Macron, present for the ceremony, the gymnast then improvised as an orchestra conductor.
With his finger in the air, at the head of the procession, he made all the members sing the Marseillaise, walking behind him and each waving a small blue, white and red flag.
Proof of Olympic form. Above all, he seems to have recovered from his past wounds. In 2016, during the Rio Games, the member of the French artistic gymnastics team Samir Aït-Saïd violently injured his leg. Then again before in 2012, during the European Championships in Montpellier (Hérault) and only two months before the London Olympics, he had suffered another injury to his right leg. Unfortunately, he was unable to participate in this edition of the Games.