Zoé Claessens wins first Swiss Olympic BMX racing medal
Zoé Claessens with Switzerland's first BMX racing medal
Keystone / Laurent Gillieron
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Listening: Zoé Claessens wins first Swiss Olympic BMX racing medal
Zoé Claessens is the first Swiss Olympic medallist in BMX racing. The 23-year-old from Vaud won bronze in Paris on Friday. Cédric Butti came fourth in the men’s race.
Claessens, who went into the competition as one of the favourites, was beaten by Saya Sakakibara from Australia and Manon Veenstra from the Netherlands.
“A dream comes true. Things didn’t go as planned at the beginning. I’m only now really realising that I’ve won an Olympic medal and made Swiss history,” said Claessens, a two-time European champion and World Championship silver medallist.
Claessens in action on Friday
Keystone / Laurent Gillieron
With bronze, the daughter of BMX pioneer Vincent Claessens, who built the first BMX track and club in Switzerland together with friends in Echichens in 1983, delivered what she had expected of herself. “Of course my goal is to win a medal,” said the otherwise reserved athlete in the run-up to the event.
Earlier in the day Cédric Butti narrowly missed out on a medal in the men’s event, finishing a tenth of a second off third place.
Translated from German by DeepL/ts
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