In the Olympic debut of triathlon’s mixed relay event, France secured the bronze medal with strong contributions from Cassandre Beaugrand and Vincent Luis. It is also France’s first-ever medal in the 21-year history of triathlon at the Olympic Games.
The mixed relay was contested at Odaiba Bay, Tokyo over a 300-meter swim, 6.8-kilometer bike, and 2-kilometer run. Eleven nations with teams of four athletes (two female, two male going in the order female-male-female-male) competed, with each athlete completing the course before tagging their next teammate.
Beaugrand and Luis made up the latter two members of the French team, with Leonie Periault kicking off their race and Dorian Coninx continuing the pursuit.
By the time Coninx handed the race off to Beaugrand, France was in fifth position. With her speedy swim Beaugrand moved the nation into medal contention and stayed in the mix through her bike and run. As she tapped off Luis, France was only 35 seconds away from first place.
Luis wasted no time erasing the deficit over his swim and bike to overtake the USA’s Morgan Pearson and battle Great Britain’s Alex Yee for gold. However, in the fast-firing format of mixed relay, small margins count; Yee exited the bike-to-run transition first to clinch gold two kilometers later. Luis held strong as the fleet-footed Pearson overtook him for silver, saving a historic bronze medal finish for his nation.
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