This article is presented without bias or favour and can be used, at no charge, for editorial purposes.

By Jonathan Wong

The throw of the genetic dice has stacked things in favour of French hammer thrower Alexia Sedykh.

For a start, the 16-year-old is the daughter of two Olympic throw legends.

Then, there is the unstinting support from them. She said: “I owe them everything.”

And their advice proved crucial yesterday after the 1.73m-tall, 89kg Alexia struggled with the slippery surface in the throwing ring – due to the heavy downpour, fouling on her first two attempts.

“Even though they tried to dry the ring, I was worried about slipping.”

It prompted both parents to move from their seats in the stands at Bishan Stadium to the fence behind their only child. “They were telling me to calm down and to trust my training,” recalled Alexia. “I’ve practised in the rain so I knew I could handle it.”

The next throw saw the hammer fly 59.08m and gave her the outright lead among the nine competitors.

Her fourth and final attempt was also a foul and made her father Yuriy, 55, more nervous. The physical education teacher at Leonard de Vinci University in Paris could not stop fidgeting as he paced furiously along the steps leading back to the stands.

Said the two-time Olympic winner for the then Soviet Union and owner of the 26-year-old world hammer record (86.74m) half-jokingly: “She’s sending the both of us to our graves! This is the most anxious I've ever been in my life. We couldn’t do anything but just watch her. It was up to her.”

It was only after second-placed Belarussian Alena Navahrodskaya’s final attempt travelled only 57.34m did Yuriy and his wife Natalya, 48, the 1988 Olympic shot put champion, also for the USSR, finally relax, safe in the knowledge that their daughter was an Youth Olympic Games champion.

Said Alexia: “I couldn’t have done any of this without them. They prepared me for this moment, gave me everything I needed to achieve this.”

The occasion was made even more special as her father, invited as a guest, was part of the medal ceremony. An embrace from her dad, the gold medal hanging from her neck, and the French national anthem, La Marseillaise, playing in the background, completed the perfect setting.

“It was the most special moment of my life,” said Alexia, whose mother watched from the sidelines, sobbing uncontrollably. “This gold medal was not just for me, it was also for my parents.”

Asked which of her parents she is more similar to – Yuriy being the more gregarious of the two – Alexia smiled: “Both. I’m like both of them.”

True, they are now all Olympic champions in their own right.

This article is presented without bias or favour and can be used, at no charge, for editorial purposes.