The summer of 2021 will forever be etched in our fan memories. Why ? Because the flirtation between July and August will have offered us almost at the same time the NBA Finals, the Free Agency, the Olympic Games, the Draft and the Summer League. Are you serious? Oh yeah. The scars of this crazy period are still there, a year later, so much so that we decided, over a few days, to remind you of some of these still present memories. 2021 intravenously. Today ? We come back to the end of the epic of Les Bleues in Tokyo, ended with a beautiful Olympic bronze medal.
How incredible this summer of 2021 was, and even more so for our French teams. At volleyball, with a band of immeasurably talented degenerates who offered us, coach included, emotions that were far too crazy. Handball too, above all, with two gold medals and the blue-white-red which replaced the Olympic flag for a few days. Then in basketball, of course, with the silver medal of the Blues, so close and at the same time so far against Team USA, and therefore the bronze medal of our girls, hard won on the evening of a tough tournament. Come on, flashback, it was a year ago.
They will have gone through all the emotions, from a failed start to a tournament to a zenifying medal, from a courageous breath against the American ogre to a double Japanese disappointment, through an exploit against our best Iberian enemies. The conclusion of all this? That bronze medal game on August 7, hours after seeing France rise at dawn for the men’s final, against Serbs who had punished them a few weeks earlier in a disappointing EuroBasket. As a symbol, salvation will come that day from one of the competition’s rays of sunshine, the warrior Gaby Williams, but also from a girl in difficulty in Tokyo but who left through the front door: Marine Fauthoux. A great match for a great little player, and therefore this infectious joy after the ultimate victory, synonymous with the second Olympic medal after London in 2012.
The solidity of the oldSandrine Gruda, Endy Miyem, Valeriane Vukosaljevic, Sarah Michel, Helena Ciak and Diandra Tchatchouang, the freshness brought by the new generationAlexia Chartereau, Alix Duchet, Iliana Rupert, Marine Fauthoux, in short the cocktail was sometimes close to implosion with defeats working like a good big wick, but in the end we all pull in the same direction and we garnish a little more a trophy cabinet that can make people jealous.
The perfect definition of an Olympic tournament with its joys and its sorrows, all commented on with passion and accuracy by a Céline Dumerc who will have saved the fortnight of basketball from France Télé. That was Tokyo too, a roller coaster in the middle of Japan, but in the end an immense shared joy, despite the jet lag.
And to relive the Les Bleues tournament as if it were yesterday…
The French women’s team fulfilled its mission with bravery: short defeat against Team USA, heading for the quarter-finals!
The French women’s team was great against Spain: 67-64, towards the semi-finals for Marine Johannes and her Dream Team!
The French team bows heavily against Japanese women in a trance: the step was too high, it was above all too fast
The French women’s team fired its fireworks: victory full of joy against Serbia, here the bronze medal!
Olympic Games – the results of the French women’s team, head by head: a medal at the end means that everything went (almost) well