I came today as an Olympian
and an adoptee.
I came today as someone who left an image
in my sport, figure skating,
and who left an impact in sports.
The day I was born, my life was different,
not typical.
After couple days after my birth,
my biological mum
decided to give me up for adoption
in the South of France, in hospital.
I had couple months where I was alone,
and suddenly, a French white couple
decided to adopt me
and change my life forever
and take me home.
My life was altered
and beautiful ever since.
My parents were just regular people
who gave me everything,
gave me opportunity
to be a happy and healthy child,
and was surrounded by lots of love.
I can say that I was
very lucky being adopted.
It was like winning lottery.
I've been participating
at three Winter Olympic Games.
My first one was in 1992
in Albertville, in my home country.
I was asked by the Olympic Committee
to give the Olympics off
on behalf of the athletes.
Second was in 1994 in Lillehammer.
And my third and last Olympics
was in 1998 in Nagano, Japan.
That was my last competition
as an amateur.
And somehow, I decided
to do the best element that I had -
was actually the backflip,
landing on one foot.
That was never performed,
ever in competition.
Yup, that was wild.
As a pioneer in sports,
I wanted to be the first-ever skater
to do a backflip on Olympic ice.
I had the opportunity and chance
to have an amazing career.
I had chance to do lot of sports
when I was young,
encouraged by my mother as a sport coach.
I was somehow good at everything I tried.
I did diving, fencing, horse-riding,
many sports except
catching a ball - no good at all.
My mum, one day, drove me
to a scary gymnastics centre.
And somehow, being so tiny at my age
was actually an advantage
and became one of my best choices.
I even became world champion
in tumbling at 12.
And gymnastics brought me the skill
that I would use later on in my career
to attempt wonderful tricks
like backflips or quadruple jumps.
I was actually the first female
ever to attempt a quadruple in skating
in the whole world.
I remember when I was nine years old,
one of my skating coaches told me
that I couldn't do a double jump.
Didn't even allow me to even try it.
So, my mum and I decided
to go to another skating rink
and practice over and over
that forbidden jump.
And guess what?
I finally learned it.
So, for me and my mum,
it was actually a triumph.
That day, I was so full
of joy and so happy.
But the next day, my coach saw that jump.
Unfortunately, he was mad at me
because I was disobeying him.
And I was too young,
and I was improving too fast.
So, I was kind of just mixing and changing
the whole skating world back then.
Back in the days,
my mum became more attentive,
tried to spend time
watching me at practice.
Even though she even tried to hide herself
behind flower or tree pots,
but she would always be here
to watch me practice.
And eventually, she became
my full-time skating coach
even though I did have amazing
and world-renowned coaches.
My life was for sure different,
but I had wonderful experience.
I was so excited
to participate in the Olympics
and be able to have this experience
of being in the middle of those countries.
As champions,
we are so lucky to be
and participate in Olympic Games -
knowing that there is more
than 200 countries meeting together -
and spend two weeks
during those Olympics together
living under one roof
and following those rules:
respect, sportsmanship,
competition, and peace.
And those rules are so important.
I think that ...
competing all over the world
gave me such experience.
I had the chance to travel
all over the world,
competing, performing.
I even had the experience and the chance
to go to North Korea three times.
Yeah, like you can imagine,
North Korea looks sometimes strange,
but I did perform there.
And I had the chance to perform
and be respected
like in any other places
that I would perform.
North Korean people
were a little reserved,
but somehow, they
were so respectful to us,
to my teammates.
And whether I was black,
I came as a French with American address,
somehow, they liked me
and respected me like all my other peers.
I think sports have the capacity
to break barriers.
And that's wonderful.
Often, sports work
better than governments.
Sports have the capacity to bring people,
unite with happiness, love
all over the world.
And I am so lucky to be an athlete
who had the chance to perform
in front everyone.
I would say that I was lucky
to have parents who helped me,
parents who gave me a good education.
They continually gave me
the sense of keeping my skills,
to try to speak up, to be a better person.
And as an athlete,
it's important to be able to show
what you want to do,
to show to the world that you have power.
And I can say that I am
very thankful to my parents
to give me that strength and that courage.
You probably wonder,
How did I come that far?
You probably think that it came easy.
No.
Every day I practised, every year,
for 7, 10 hours a day.
But somehow, the strength, the love,
and the power of my sport
made me become who I am today.
And I am just blessed
to be here in front of you today
as an ambassador for peace.
And I'm here,
and I hope that my skating life impacted
a lot of people who did watch me
and will probably inspire
many lives in the future.
Thank you.
(Applause)