The shadow, finally.
In the shelter of the tents erected along the upright stands from which he has just taken fourth place in the first skateboarding event in the history of the Olympic Games, Vincent Milou is breathing.
Out of the furnace.
Yes, it has been said, repeated and repeated, the summers of Tokyo are scorching, not to say sometimes heavy and suffocating.
But with a competition spread out from 8:30 am to 1:30 pm local time and about two hours on the board without a shadow fart, the eight finalists were able to appreciate the fifty shades of heat of Japan.
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“In the morning, it's humid so you have trouble breathing, breathes the Landais.
Then the humidity drops, but it hits more and more.
There, for the final, I needed to put ice cubes on my head between my runs.
There it was hard.
"
The Blues of the street event, the first of the two disciplines of this sport on the program for the Tokyo Olympics, have nevertheless tried to anticipate the weight of the degrees.
In France, Milou trained in a hammam.
He and Aurélien Giraud, the other French national, have also gotten into the habit of going skating in the morning to get used to the wetness, although not so intense this summer for local standards according to several Japanese observers.
But nothing to do.
"By this time, I'm at the beach"
“It's extremely disturbing, loose Giraud, sixth Sunday. There, we are at 32, felt 40. At this temperature, I am at the beach on my towel normally. We sweat quickly, even when we sit there doing nothing. “Blushed by the effort and the degrees, the Lyonnais gradually relaxes thanks to the refrigerated jacket given by the management of the Blues. A trick to lower the degrees, adopted by the French rowing and which Vincent Milou also used between his passages in the final to fight against the heat.
The problem was not confined to the athletes. The stands, occupied only by coaches, officials, volunteers or journalists, filled with umbrellas from 8:30 am. The little hands of the Olympics spent the day distributing bottles of water to who seemed a bit too red and offering sunscreen. But on the skatepark, the show suffered from the weight of the heat, without anyone looking to make it an excuse to justify its failure in the medal race.
"Many fell more in the final than during qualifying," said Vincent Milou. I felt that I was losing power. There is once when I tackle the trick (Editor's note: pulling a trick), but where behind I can't even roll. You are struggling so much you are exhausted. Aurélien Giraud has already fled the mixed zone, vest on his back. The French go to the showers, installed a few meters away. To savor a desired humidity this time.
