'I slept with my medal': French fencer Manon Apithy-Brunet on winning gold
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00:00Let's go over to the Club France, where French fans have been gathering throughout these games.
00:06And our very own Clovis Casalie, the temperature certainly rose on Monday,
00:11the home side savouring eight medals won, the most for France at an Olympics since 1996.
00:20Yes, and that success is a real victory for the supporters here behind me.
00:25You can see a few standing up, I can tell you there are a lot more behind, sitting down,
00:30taking a well-deserved break because the mood was very festive earlier
00:35when the two fencing stars, Sarah Balzer and Manon Apiti Brunet, who won silver and gold,
00:44were here celebrating where their supporters, because it's the tradition here at Club France,
00:49when they win medals, the athletes then come in the evening or the following day here to meet their supporters
00:57and they did come here to show their medals and we also got to talk to them.
01:01I asked the gold medalist what it's like, what is it like to be facing a French citizen, a friend, a compatriot, a colleague in a final.
01:12Take a listen to her answer.
01:15We looked to get to the final and get gold for France and two medals as well.
01:20We could have ended up in third place and that would have been a lot less fun
01:24because one of us wouldn't have gotten a medal, or even for the quarter-finals,
01:28so we were lucky to find ourselves together.
01:31Afterwards, we both knew we deserved the gold.
01:34I got it, but she could have got it too.
01:37It's hard for me to believe that I'm an Olympic champion.
01:40I'm very proud to be the first Olympic medalist in my sport and the first Olympic champion.
01:45I slept with my medal, so I look at it, I savour it, but it's hard to believe that it's mine.