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)