Olympic moment of the day: French race-walker sets a personal best after birth of his daughter
Aurélien Quinion of Team France competes during the Men’s 20km Race Walk on August 1.
Paris (CNN) — Most Olympians will spend the night before their event getting as much sleep as they can, fueling up, doing whatever work they need to do on their body in order to be ready to go for gold the next day.
Aurélien Quinion, a French race-walker who competed on Thursday, had a dramatically different experience ahead of the 20km final.
Quinion instead was at his wife’s bedside at 2 a.m. Paris time as she gave birth to their baby girl, Charlie. The French athlete eventually got about 30 minutes of something approaching sleep before getting in a taxi and heading to the race, less than six hours after Charlie entered the world.
In a statement released by the French Athletics Federation, Quinion said mother and daughter were both doing well.
“Everything went well, the little one is super beautiful, with beautiful eyes. Her mother is doing very well. That’s what matters most. I couldn’t be happier, it’s total bliss,” he said.
Quinion finished ninth in the event, setting a personal best of 1:19:56.
The result, he said, was “something strong, for an amateur who is gradually becoming a professional. I am living the best moments of my life. I could have said that after this, we can die in peace, but now that I have a little girl, absolutely not! We are going to take care of her and give her the best life possible.”
He celebrated his finish with the famous thumb-sucking pose to homage to his newborn baby girl.
It’s a testament to a father’s love and an Olympian’s spirit that Quinion was able to not only be at his wife’s bedside, but be at the starting line and finish in the top 10 of a world class event. He had better start getting used to these kind of sleepless nights.
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