By Geert De Clercq
PARIS (Reuters) -France’s Joris Daudet won gold in men’s BMX racing on Friday, leading a French sweep of the podium.
His compatriots Sylvain Andre and Romain Mahieu took silver and bronze, respectively, in front of an ecstatic home crowd in the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines stadium, finally winning the Olympic medals that had so long eluded them.
The French have dominated BMX racing in recent decades, amassing 50 gold medals at world championships since 1982, and Daudet and Mahieu hold first and second place in the UCI ranking.
But at the Olympics they had only bagged two medals – both by female riders – since the sport’s debut in Beijing in 2008.
In the presence of French President Emmanuel Macron, the three French riders shot out of the starting ramp first and maintained their lead throughout the race.
(Reporting by Geert De Clercq; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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