JO 2024.They will parachute above the Invalides in Paris, for the Olympic Games

Equipped with a brand new suit, he listens to the instructions and holds his relay stick firmly. A parachute jump is a first for Franco-Chinese artist Ching Yik Hong. This Saturday, June 8, at the La Baule aerodrome, he sets off in tandem to jump at an altitude of 3,000 meters, with a beautiful free fall before opening the sail.

A full-scale rehearsal before the big day. Sunday June 23, we will have to repeat the same one above the Invalides in Paris, for the day of the Olympic Games. "We would have liked the opening ceremony, but it was too complicated, especially from an administrative point of view. Already, jumping above Paris is a real feat," smiles Phoummavongsa Sengsouvanh.

The symbol

Lieutenant-colonel in the army, president of the departmental parachute committee of Indre-et-Loire, he is at the origin of the initiative, with the "extreme paratrooper" Mario Gervasi.

This former deputy director of the French military skydiving team has accumulated more than… 18,000 jumps. He no longer counts the "world firsts" listed on his CV. Jumps over Everest, North and South Poles, Israel, Pakistan, etc. Mario Gervasi wants to be "a conqueror of peace, serving sporting and humanitarian missions in the four corners of the world for more than thirty years".

On Saturday, the group trained with the plane of the company Ciel et terre, of Skander Abdallah, which offers baptisms in Quiberon and La Baule several times a month.

One solo, the other two in tandem, on June 23 they will brandish enormous flags and a stick inscribed with Pierre de Coubertin's declaration. "It's a symbol of Franco-Chinese friendship, but also a transmission between the Beijing Winter Olympics and those of Paris 2024. It's really great to be able to jump for the Olympics above Paris. »