On August 12, 2008 in Beijing, Benjamin Boukpeti made history by winning Togo’s first – and still only – Olympic medal. In the K1 canoe-kayak slalom event, the Parisian-born Boukpeti won bronze. More than 15 years after this feat, the Peace and Sport ambassador looks back on this crazy adventure, with emotion still intact.
RFI: What are your first Olympic memories?
Benjamin Boukpeti: my first great memory of Olympic Gamesit’s 1996 in Atlanta. I was 15 years old. I remember getting up in the night, sitting in my mom’s chair, all alone in front of the TV, drinking cold drinks with syrup, because it was hot. My idol was Michael Johnson, the “Loco from Waco” [champion olympique du 200 m et 400 m en 1996, NDLR]. I still get chills just thinking about it, it was truly magnificent. He was an atypical athlete; the way he ran, the way he behaved. He really left a mark on me. So much so that when Usain Bolt broke his world record (200m), I was extremely sad.
You loved athletics. So how did you get into canoeing?
I discovered canoeing in 1991, when I was 10 years old. At the time, I was more of a footballer. I discovered kayaking because my grandmother had a house on the banks of the Marne, in the Paris region. One day, there was a discovery activity, I went with one of my best friends. We did it once, twice, three times. And then finally, we joined the club. The atmosphere was extraordinary; there was a feeling of freedom and gliding that I found great. And during my first competitions, I made podiums. So, the emulation happened gradually. Even if, at that time, I wasn’t thinking about the Olympics or an Olympic medal, I was really driven by the competitive spirit. I had a strong taste for competition.
To talk about this historic day when you won the bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics, what memories do you have of this wonderful day?
Wow! There is a kind of serenity, because we do the qualifications the day before and the finals the day after. In the qualifications, I experienced the worst and the best. I do a first qualifying round, I am second to last. At that moment, I tell myself that I am missing out on my Olympic Games, that it is over. I spend my time crying between the two qualifying rounds, to finally do a second qualifying round where I do the best time of the day. I manage to come back to qualify for the semi-final and there, it is extraordinary.
When you do all the technical analyses, video analyses, I realize that I am really present and I can really count on my strengths. So in the morning, there is a form of serenity. When I take my kayak, I knew that today, something was going to happen. After the semi-final, I am in the lead, so I have the best time. That had never happened to me in an international competition. It was not the scenario I had planned, because I like to be a bit of an outsider. I wanted to be 4th, 5th to go hunting and get the podium. And there, I spent all the time between the semi-final and the final convincing myself that it was better to be ahead than behind.
Was it complicated to manage this advance?
Yes, the proof, I had a complicated start. I was confident until the moment when the camera showed my head on the screens; the whole stadium started screaming. There, I had the impression that my kayak was shaking. In a few seconds, I was liquid. I set off, but I was not well at all. I made a catastrophic first straight line, the first gate on the way up, I almost went next to it. There, I said to myself, if you don’t pull yourself together now, it’s over, my friend. So, I attacked, I made an anthology mid-course, extremely fast. I love seeing him again, by the way.
And here I am finished, Olympic medalist, bronze. The first and only Olympic medal in the history of Togo. I break my paddle. I sometimes listen to the RFI soundtrack again, because there is an explosion of joy. The journalist says: ” He expresses his joy, he breaks his paddle on a rock. “I break it on my kayak (laughs), but it doesn’t matter.
You were born in Lagny-sur-Marne, in the Paris region, and you have dual nationality. How did you make this choice between France and Togo?
There was a real strategic choice, in fact. That means that, in 2004, I realized that I could win an Olympic medal. I had something inside me that told me that it was possible. At the time, I was entering a business school where I learned a little more about strategy. And in fact, I applied the business school methods to my case (laughs): strengths, weaknesses, threats, opportunities, etc. And there, I said to myself: “If you are at the start of the Olympic Games as a Frenchman, basically, you have a 90% chance of being a medalist. On the other hand, to be an Olympic medalist with France, you have to be at the start of the Games, which is harder. With Togo, you have a 90% chance of being at the start of the Games, but you have a much less chance of being a medalist.”
With France, there was a risk of not being at the Games. This was the case for my training partner, Benoît Peschier, with whom I trained for the last two years before Beijing. At that time, frankly, he could be Olympic champion like four years earlier in Athens, but he was only an Olympic substitute. I didn’t want to experience that. Above all, I planned to end my career in 2008, so I could finish it by achieving my best possible level at the Beijing Olympics, even if it meant only being 8th or 10th in the world, but at least I would have an international reference to tell my children about. And so there you have it, at that time, I also made the strategic choice to go with Togo. But that required me to put everything in place to be able to become an Olympic medalist. That required a colossal amount of work. It was a learning process that was crazy, that was both very stressful and very exciting.
And how was your first stay in Lomé after the medal?
It was wonderful! It’s the Pope in Brazil, there are a million people. It’s crazy, it’s crazy (he repeats). I arrive, I’m drowned under the microphones, security people who help me breathe finally, family members who jump on my neck. There are some that I don’t know or hardly know; an aunt that I must have seen once or twice in Paris, etc. It’s just phenomenal and extremely touching.