Léonore Perrus (FRA)-Sada Jacobsen (USA)
1/4 Finals Sabre Fencing
Date: 27/08/2004.
Location: Helliniko Olympic Complex Athens
Win or Lose. Olympic margins are the world’s smallest.
Léonore Perrus, a French Sabre Fencer realizes her dream to win a medal during the Athens’04 Olympics has just ended seconds earlier. I felt her pain through my lens.
Directly after the final score of her opponent Sada Jacobsen from the United States of America Léonore crumbles to the ground. All muscles in her body are paralyzed. There is no-one in the stadium. She is alone. Alone with her grief. Tears start to flood. But then her coach speeds to her to catch her. He cannot say anything and his presence makes the scene even more dramatic.
Léonore looks on the images like a mourning Maria. Loosing an Olympic medal is not the end. But for her at that exact moment it felt like it. Her dreams kept her going. So Léonore continued fencing and came back to the Games. She participated in Beijing’08 and London’12. She never won an Olympic (golden) medal.
But the intensity of this all makes the Olympics so intense. Participation is for many a dream come true. For others it’s the pursuit for the ultimate. That Golden medal. Some of those dreams come true. Most shatter.
But never stop dreaming!
