Paris 2024 Paralympic Games: This Ugo Didier has some bite! And forms a magical duo with Alex Portal

Ugo Didier a brillé à la Paris La Défense Arena sur le 400m nage libre. MAXPPP – Andrew Matthews

Le Toulousain Ugo Didier a décroché la première médaille d’or côté français, sur le 400 m nage libre (S9) ce jeudi 29 août. Son pote Alex Portal a pris l’argent sur 100 m papillon (S13).

Everything connected them. Two 22-year-old buddies. Two roommates. Two guys who started out with the able-bodied. Two gifted guys who wanted to become engineers. Both have a brother who is also competing in the Paris Paralympics and who has exactly the same disability. Both won silver and bronze in Tokyo. Both gave each other a little nickname. “Calfless” for one, “the cross-eyed” for the other.

Thursday evening, in the bustle of the Paris La Défense Arena, where the smell of sulfur had replaced that of chlorine, Ugo Didier decided to break the bond. For a good cause. By winning gold, he gave himself a gap with Alex Portal, in silver the same day.

The accounts are not yet fixed and may rebalance in the coming days, given the calendar of the two boys (see below). In the meantime, the 22-year-old prodigy, born on September 11, 2001 with atrophy in both legs, has taken a step forward by becoming the champion he dreamed of being.

“In the water, I no longer feel the pain”, he often repeats.

For us, it was the stress we felt in this 400 m freestyle. He waited until the last fifty meters of his race to make a decisive attack on the Italian monster, Simone Barlaam, double world champion. It was crazy.

A comparison with another Toulousain…

Didier's tactical intelligence and talent have therefore unlocked the title counter for the French delegation. He showed the way to his team. To his "brother" Alex Portal, too, entered two hours later in the 100m butterfly, Thursday evening.

The native of Saint-Germain-en-Laye was competing in the S13 category, reserved for the visually impaired, as he has ocular albinism, preventing him from seeing clearly beyond one meter and perceiving the three dimensions of space. My eyes “are going to peanuts”, he describes with a smile and to relax his interlocutor. On Thursday, he sent us into a tailspin with a final 25 m that made us believe in a comeback from nowhere. But he missed the supreme title by two tenths.

The spotlight therefore remained on the sunny Ugo Didier. Besides, we had sworn not to make a connection. But we couldn't help ourselves. From Toulouse, 22 years old, good-looking, mastery of the race, a direct opponent who is a double world champion, a fantastic comeback in the last fifty meters… Doesn't that remind you of anyone?

Didier did everything he could to be compared to Léon Marchand, mega star of the last Olympic Games with five medals won (four gold, one bronze). He clearly stole the recipe from him! Prince Ugo's 400m was an exact copy of King Léon's magical 200m butterfly, a few weeks earlier. Now, if he has followed the method well, the resident of the Cugnaux club (Haute-Garonne) knows that the hardest part is yet to come: confirming. The task is immense. The mission, almost impossible. But this word has become meaningless within the La Défense enclosure.

Ugo Didier's program: Monday September 2: 50 m freestyle. Tuesday 3: 100 m backstroke. Thursday 5: 200 m medley. Saturday 7: 4×100 m NL.
Portal's program: Friday August 30: 100 m breaststroke. Saturday 31: 400 m freestyle. Tuesday 3: 200m medley.