With 12 medals including seven gold, the French delegation leaves Beijing with a fourth place, its best record already achieved three times (1994, 2006, 2018).
Back to some strong moments and characters of the tricolor contingent.
To discover
The 2022 Winter Olympics medal table
Full results of the 2022 Winter Olympics
King Arthur Bauchet hatches...
There was Bochet in 2014 and 2018, there will be Bauchet in Beijing 2022. Eight and four years after the four titles won in alpine skiing by Marie Bochet in Sochi then Pyeongchang, Arthur Bauchet, three-time Paralympic champion, has become figurehead tricolor of the Beijing Games, with his communicative joie de vivre, and a smile still hanging on his lips despite the pain often caused by his illness, spastic paraparesis.
"
I'm still not the boss.
I don't think you'll ever be able to get me to say that!
“, he laughed again on Sunday, after having once again won the most beautiful medals in slalom to end his second Games in style with four podiums in total including two other titles in downhill and super combined.
But he knows it, he has
totally changed status
” in China.
... Queen Marie Bochet hangs up
A fall in the slalom on Saturday sealed the end of his Paralympic career.
Eight-time gold medalist in alpine skiing, Marie Bochet has lived through some difficult games, with all the same a silver medal which she received with emotion when she was awarded it.
"
I'm a little relieved that it's over
" admitted the "
snow queen
", confirming that "
these Games also showed me that it was really over
".
On Sunday, on social networks, she wanted to add that she "
maybe have to live all this to realize that I am not just a medal machine and to realize the value of what I have accomplished
”.
In total, she collected nine medals in four appearances.
Revenge of Hernandez and Montaggioni
If alpine skiing has allowed the Blues to collect half of its medals, thanks in particular to Bauchet, Bochet and the bronze of Hyacinthe Deleplace in downhill, French snowboarding has offered two gold medals with a strong symbol for Cécile Hernandez in cross and Maxime Montaggioni in banked slalom.
The first achieved her goal when she learned at the last moment of her departure for the Games.
The abolition of her disability category (LL1) deprived her of participation for a long time, but it was in LL2 that she won the last title missing from her list.
“
It was big fights and a lot of sacrifices
“, had declared in tears the athlete suffering from multiple sclerosis.
Emotion also for Maxime Montaggioni whose 2018 Games in Pyeongchang had been marred by an injury.
Disappointed after his elimination in the snowboardcross quarter-finals, he finally won gold a few days later. “
I couldn't understand why people cried when they had a medal at the Games.
But there, I understood, it's an incredible emotion
.
The awakening of Benjamin Daviet
First there was the disappointment of the sprint (4th), the medium distance (6th) in biathlon and then the click with a coronation in cross-country skiing (sprint) the next day.
"
I had so much anger in me for having done anything that I unloaded everything
" savors the Haut-Savoyard.
Relieved, he flew over the individual biathlon for a second title then gleaned two other silver medals in the middle distance and during the cross-country skiing relay, alongside Anthony Chalençon.
A "
reward
" for the whole team and a fourth personal medal for the tricolor standard bearer.