Paris 2024 Olympics: at the end of a crazy race in which he fell, Benjamin Thomas is Olympic omnium champion!

Le Français Benjamin Thomas remporte l’or sur l’omnium ce jeudi 8 août. MAXPPP – MATTHIEU BOTTE

Benjamin Thomas était en lice sur l’omnium ce jeudi 8 août, une forte chance de médaille. Le Tarnais a encore fait mieux, il est allé chercher le titre !

Oh, Benjamin Thomas' revenge! 4th in Tokyo in 2021, the Lavaur native gave a masterclass in the omnium at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome. Despite a fall that fans thought was fatal, the Frenchman did what was necessary to win gold. The 53rd medal for the French delegation.

First Olympic title

In a race that is quite complex for the uninitiated, the Cofidis rider (28 years old) won his first Olympic title. A consecration for him, who won a stage of the Giro this year.

This is the 14th gold medal for France in these Games, the first in three days and the coronation of Kauli Vaast on Monday in surfing. Masterfully skilled, the 28-year-old from Tarn won the "decathlon" track by dominating the proceedings to the point of getting up from a fall, 25 laps from the finish of the last discipline, the points race.

With Olympian calm, aware that the rules gave him five laps to get back into the peloton, he resumed his race with torn shorts and a grazed right elbow and a burned forearm.

"I had left to do podium"

The Cofidis rider, who also shines on the road, even went back on the offensive at the end to secure his place on the podium ahead of the Portuguese Iuri Leitao and the Belgian Fabio van den Bossche. "I was going to make the podium. I didn't want to put pressure on myself with a gold medal goal. What made the difference was the public, we woke up the volcano", the Frenchman savored, very moved.

"Today the planets were aligned, nothing could happen to me", he added. It is the first medal of the week for the French track which was beginning to worry about the lack of results after the exceptional results on the road, in mountain biking and in BMX.