The Frenchman can win Olympic gold in skateboarding.
“I came sixth in Tokyo, I’m not proud of that, clearly. Now, I’m going there to win. Second, third, that’s not really my thing. I want to come first. To win.” Aurélien Giraud’s ambition for the Olympic Games is clear, as he stated in a press conference. On Saturday, July 27, the Frenchman will be on the track to try to win Olympic gold, perhaps even the first for the French delegation in these Paris Olympics 2024.
He started with roller skates
In 2023, he was crowned world champion of street skateboarding in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. A consecration for someone who started with roller skating, as he explained to the Olympics website a few months ago. “I started skateboarding when I was four years old, a bit by chance. At the time, my father bought me some small roller skates. Then one day, he said to me “I’m going to take you to a place to do some”. That place was actually the Lyon skatepark, but the outdoor part. The indoor part, you could do a bit of roller skating but I was too small. “Then I saw big guys skateboarding and I said to myself “that’s what I want to do”. They were doing big jumps, there was a very good level of skateboarding in Lyon, as always, and that’s how I got into it. I asked for a skateboard for Christmas and since that day, I have never touched the skates again. Or anything else!”