Broken dreams at Rio Olympics

26-year-old French gymnast Samir Aït Saïd broke his leg during team vault preliminaries on Saturday at the 2016 Rio Olympics. 

Specialising in rings and vault Aït Saïd most recently competed at the 2015 World Championships in Glasgow. He won gold on the rings at the 2013 European Championships and then silver in the same discipline in 2015. His sporting career began with judo before he made the switch to gymnastic. Spotted by some top coaches he made the move from Paris to Antibes with his family in order to train full time.

Martine, his mother, said: ‘He saw there was gymnastics in judo. He said to his father: “That’s what I want to do”. ‘He was spotted by coaches who wanted him in Antibes, and we took the chance. We moved to Antibes.'

Aït Saïd broke his right leg while landing the vault at the 2012 European Championships, two months before the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. On Saturday he broke his left leg in the same way in a terrible twist of fate that has now ruled him out of two Olympics. The young man hailing from Antibes has stayed positive however and is already preparing himself for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

In a message to his team-mates who rallied around to continue their Olympic bid at the weekend, Samir says, "Be strong, be good, I am with you, and for all of you I sent you a big embrace, and believe me my dream of making Tokyo 2020 is still on!"

We wish all of the French team the best of luck in Rio 2016.