Gold medalist Marie Patouillet (C) was supported by her France teammate and silver-medal winner Heidi Gaugain and bronze medalist Nicole Murray on the velodrome podium. | Elsa/Getty Images

Marie Patouillet gave everything in pursuit of victory in what was her last-ever track cycling race at the Paralympics.

The Frenchwoman achieved her goal in the C5 category of the 3,000m individual pursuit, securing the first Paralympic gold medal of her career at the age of 36, to go with a silver from a few days ago and the two bronzes she won in Tokyo.

After completing her lap of honor in the velodrome, she located her wife Soraya Garlenq in the crowd. Garlenq was wearing a T-shirt with a picture of Patouillet’s face on it from a time when she had Pride rainbow-colored hair.

The couple shared a celebratory kiss while friends and family members celebrated around them.

Marie Patouillet
Soraya Garlenq was wearing a T-shirt with wife Marie Patouillet’s face on it.

But later, so great had been Patouillet’s effort amid the stifling heart of the arena in the southwest suburb of Paris near to where she was born, as well as all the emotion, that she was visibly weak at the knees as the ceremony began.

Having been cheered to the rafters by a vociferous home crowd, Patouillet even appeared to be about to faint shortly before her name was announced.

She was signalling for help from officials but was assisted initially by New Zealand’s Nicole Murray, who had just received her bronze medal.

Then suddenly, a member of French team staff rushed towards the podium, while a Games official brought a chair, all while France’s Heidi Gaugain was stepping up to collect her silver.

Patouillet had just enough time to sit down briefly before having to get back up in time to receive her gold medal, with the staff member keeping her upright.

Still she was shaky, and was seated again when receiving the ubiquitous follow-up award of a cuddly Phryge mascot.

The live TV cameras cut to the crowd in case Patouillet’s distress was worsening. But as a huge roar went up, they returned to show her standing, supported by Murray and Gaugain, for the playing of the national anthem.

In an article on the official Paris 2024 website, it was revealed that Garlenq had inspired her to victory by saying beforehand: “These are your last laps — don’t think about the podium, you have to make them magical.”

After the eventful ceremony, Patouillet said: “I don’t believe it yet, firstly because of the post-final collapse and secondly because in my head, Heidi was the favourite.

“She had put in such an enormous time this morning that I said to myself: ‘Do what you know how to do, no regrets.” She also echoed the words that her wife had said to her, about making the last laps “magical”.

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On feeling faint, she added: “I think my determination took me a little too far physically. The public took me beyond what I could do: it came down to a little wobble on the podium.”

Patouillet, who works as a doctor, now turns her attention to two road events — the individual time trial on Wednesday, and the road race on Friday.

In a pre-Paralympics interview with magazine Causette, she looked ahead to what life holds after the Games and mentioned her other passion — activism.

“The plan after that is to return to medicine, but while keeping one foot in the fight against sexism and LGBTQIA-phobia. These are subjects that are really close to my heart and that I don’t want to let go of, even if I stop intensive sport,” she said.

Patouillet’s gold was the fourth won by Team LGBTQ athletes at the Paris 2024 Paralympics, following three victories in rowing earlier on Sunday by Moran Samuel (Israel), Lauren Rowles (Great Britain) and Nikki Ayers (Australia).

Team LGBTQ also has three silver medals (won by Patouillet, Irish cyclist Katie-George Dunlevy, and USA long jump athlete Jaleen Roberts) and two bronze medals (Canadian cyclist Kate O’Brien and Brazilian swimmer Patricia Pereira dos Santos).

The medal haul gained so far — and particularly the golds won — would, by the close of action on Sunday, place Team LGBTQ in 10th place in the traditional medal table, just below Italy.

In terms of medal count, Team LGBTQ’s nine would put them level with Germany and Thailand in 15th place. There are 169 competing nations at the Paris Paralympics, including the Neutral Team and Refugee Team.