With two medals gleaned, one of which was gold, parabadist Lucas Mazur brought his dream to life at the Tokyo Paralympic Games. In silver on the mixed doubles, the Frenchman is crowned in singles for the first title in the history of his discipline.
Having reached the singles final at the Tokyo Paralympic Games, Lucas Mazur did not want to miss out on his ultimate dream. On paper, the 23-year-old parabadist did the hardest part. In the semi-finals, he eliminates his lifelong rival, the Indian Tarun Dhillon, whom he regularly meets in the Worlds final (defeat in 2015, victory in 2017 and 2019). His dream, he manages to grab it in flight, and to smash it shamelessly. The tall guy, 1m92, won in three sets against Suhas Yathiraj (15-21, 21-17, 21-15) and won the long-awaited Olympic coronation. « It is an exceptional joy ” tells the champion in the pages of The New Republic. “I achieved the goal of my life: to become the first French Paralympic badminton champion. “
The X factor: air conditioning
Affected by a malformation of the ankle, the French native of Sarblis in Loir-et-Cher indeed won the first title in the history of his discipline, for his debut in the Paralympic program. In the final, he was the strongest but also the most cunning. At the start of the game, however, there is difficulty: the air conditioning bothers him. “The blast of air accelerated the speed of the steering wheel. So I let the first set pass, then in the second I took the time to come back and it started to work like clockwork. ” he always reports to the New Republic. Last set, players change ends again halfway through the inning. “The goal was to score as many points as possible before turning. It was the right tactic, I turned 10-11 and my opponent only scored four points afterwards. “
Gold in singles and silver in doubles
Nicknamed “MZ”, the just Olympic champion almost added another title to his collection, playing in the aftermath of the mixed doubles final with Faustine Noël. Beaten by the number one Indonesian pair in the world, they still bring another medal to the French clan. For those who changed clubs this summer to join Chambly, the main thing is now to recover for the World Championships which will be held from October 25 to 31. Worlds that will also take place in Tokyo. To see if Lucas could redo them the blow of the air conditioning.
