The fear of a duathlon and French stars “*****ing their pants” were Léo Bergere’s overriding emotions just before the men’s race at the Olympics finally took place.
Bergere was one of three big men’s home hopes in Paris and would end up winning a superb bronze medal after an epic finish with Alex Yee and Hayden Wilde.
But before that drama unfolded, the build-up to the triathlon races had been overshadowed by concerns over the water quality in the River Seine.
It meant all the swim familiarisation sessions were cancelled and then, just hours before it was scheduled to take place, the men’s race was postponed to the following day.
That only heightened fears that the swim wouldn’t be able to take place and we’d instead have a dreaded duathlon.
‘We wouldn’t have been doing our sport’
Thankfully that didn’t happen but speaking to Adam Leitch in the latest supertri ‘Face-to-Face’ series, which is embedded below, Bergere admitted: “I was quite worried about having a duathlon.
“That was my worst, not fear, but I was feeling that we wouldn’t have been doing our sport.
“Even if I think I would have got the same result in the end because I know how to run and bike, I definitely wanted to have a proper triathlon. And so I was worried about this – and even more so after the race was delayed.”
Under pressure
Like the other athletes Bergere had to then adapt to the change in circumstance but he readily admitted that the French athletes – Dorian Coninx and Pierre Le Corre were the other two men – also faced a different kind of pressure.
Talking about the hours before the races eventually took place, he recounted: “France had never had an individual Olympic triathlon medal before so people had been waiting a while for that.
“So we were all feeling this weight on our shoulders but I knew this day was going to be special and that I had no choice but to succeed.”
And in the moments before the start he said: “When we were warming up, every time we were in front of the spectators there was a crazy noise. We had goosebumps every time we went out of the transition area.
“And then when we went on the pontoon for the start and the speaker called out name the crowds just went crazy.
All three of us were in a row and we’ve talked about that moment a little bit since… we were all *****ing our pants basically!
“When you have to deal with that pressure, it can be good pressure. You can push yourself further in the effort but it can also drown you.”
Back on home turf this weekend
Ironically – given the doubts about the swim – it wasn’t the water quality but the strong currents which nearly cost Bergere the chance of a medal.
For he revealed: “On the second lap of the swim I did a huge mistake with the current.
“I tried to corner at the buoy and I went very far from the second buoy because of the current. I lost maybe 12 or even 15 places.”
That saw him come out of the water alongside Yee but the two of them would go on to be part of that epic finish which saw Yee come out with gold, Wilde the silver and Bergere the bronze.
He gave a fascinating insight earlier this week as to how that run drama played out and that medal could well be in show this weekend when Bergere is back in front of another huge French crowd at supertri Toulouse, a race he won last year.
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