Involuntary fall or desire to make people laugh? One thing is certain, the parade of French athletes was able to stand out thanks to the cross-country skier Jules Lapierre in Predazzo, during the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games in Milan-Cortina this Friday evening.
The show lasting more than three and a half hours was organized simultaneously on four sites: the San Siro stadium in Milan, where most of the evening took place, Cortina, Livigno where the two standard bearers Chloé Trespeuch and Clément Noël paraded, and therefore Predazzo.
“It makes people smile, that’s what’s cool!” »
It was this fourth site that attracted attention and made the rounds on social networks, after Jules Lapierre fell while running alone at the head of the procession, before turning around to signal the other French athletes to join him.
If you didn’t have to wait long to read the first mockery online, it seems that everything was calculated. The proof? His compatriot Justine Gaillard, also a cross-country skier, filmed the scene from the back and broadcast it in an Instagram story relayed by Jules Lapierre himself.
Questioned after the ceremony, the cross-country skier also confirmed that he had done it on purpose, statements relayed in particular by RMC Sport and Eurosport. “The project was to put a little fun into this ceremony and to have a laugh, to create a good atmosphere. We didn’t have much of an idea, so we did that. It makes people smile, that’s what’s cool! After the fall, everyone came to support me. I was with the others right after, it was cool,” he explained.
This amusing display at least had the merit of getting people talking about it even before the start of the competition. Jules Lapierre will be competing with the French team in the cross-country skiing events in the coming days. Fall prohibited this time.
