French gymnast Benoit Caranobe was so busy having fun in the all-around final on Thursday that he did not even realise he had won an Olympic bronze medal.

　　The 28-year-old went about his business almost unnoticed while all the focus was on Chinese Yang Wei's successful bid for gold and the remarkable comeback by Japan's Kohei Uchimura to snatch silver.

　　While favourites like German Fabian Hambuechen and South Korean Yang Tae-young were fluffing their lines, Caranobe was giving the performance of his life to become the first French gymnast to stand on the all-around podium for 88 years.

　　"My happiness is so tremendous, it was so unexpected that I believe that this medal is only going to sink in a little bit later," Caranobe told a news conference.

　　"I was not taking any notice of my scores or anyone else's scores, I only realised at the end that I had won a medal," he told reporters.

　　He first started gymnastics as a child alongside his triplet brother and sister. They gave up but he persevered, eventually helping France reach the men's team final here and qualifying in 10th place for the 24-man all-around event.

　　"This was my best ever performance," said Caranobe. "I thought it would be necessary for some other gymnasts to make errors for me to place among the top eight. I just wasn't thinking about a medal at all. It is an unbelievable feeling."

　　Caranobe said he had not even been aware that the last French medals in the Olympic all-around were Marcos Torres' silver and Jean Gounot's bronze in Antwerp in 1920.

　　He has the chance to grab a second medal in Monday's final for the vault, on which he was the top gymnast on Thursday with a score of 16.600.

　　The champagne is on ice for now.

　　"I can't really celebrate this evening as I still have to think about the vault final," he said.

　　"My next final is really close to my heart and I want to focus on it and to enjoy it.