French sports world mourns athletes who died in crash

Camille Muffat celebrates with her gold medal at the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London

Olympic gold medalist Camille Muffat had retired from swimming to focus on her personal life, boxer Alexis Vastine had some unfinished business after two disappointing Olympics, and the beloved sailor Florence Arthaud was a pioneer for women in her sport.
The three athletes were among 10 people who died as two helicopters filming a European reality show crashed in a remote part of Argentina on Monday.
As France awoke to the news, the country’s political leaders and best-known sports figures registered their shock and expressed their condolences on television and social media.
The French sports daily L’Equipe’s website carried a picture of Muffat holding her gold medal in the 400-meter freestyle at the 2012 London Olympics alongside the words, “French Sport in Mourning.”
French President Francois Hollande spoke of his “immense sadness,” while the secretary of state for sport, Thierry Braillard, said, “French sport has lost three stars.”
“Some had finished their careers and one was dreaming of gold in Rio (in 2016),” Braillard said on BFM television. “I’m profoundly saddened.”
The helicopters apparently collided in mid-air in La Rioja province, about 1,170 kilometers northwest of Buenos Aires. Eight of those killed were French, the other two were Argentine. Authorities were at the scene of the crash late Monday trying to determine its cause.
Muffat, who was 25, also won a silver medal in the 200 freestyle and a bronze in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay at the London Games. She retired last year with big plans for the next stage of her life. Her friend and agent Sophie Kamoun recalled how keen Muffat was to take part in “Dropped,” the survivalist television show she was filming in Argentina.
Alexis Vastine will never get the Olympic gold he so dearly craved — and one he felt was so unjustly denied him. The boxer won a bronze at the 2008 Games in Beijing after a controversial loss to Manuel Felix Diaz of the Dominican Republic in the semifinals. Vastine was ahead in the bout, but was docked points by the referee in the final round. He broke down in tears after the defeat. There were tears again at the London Games four years later when Vastine drew on points with Taras Shelestyuk of Ukraine in the quarterfinals, but lost the bout on the count-back rule.
Florence Arthaud, who was 57, was a pioneer in sailing. In 1990, she won the famed Route du Rhum race — a trans-Atlantic single-handed yacht race between Brittany and the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe — on her boat Pierre 1er.
“She was a fighter,” said French sailor Jean-Luc Van Den Heede, who was second in the Route du Rhum race in 1998. “At the time it was extraordinary because not many women were doing this. She opened the way for others.” MDT/AP