“I feel alive”, confides Manoël Bourdenx, the miracle who will defend France in alpine skiing

It is a miracle that will defend France’s chances in the para alpine skiing event at the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Games. One day in 2017, while surfing in Hawaii, Manoël Bourdenx crosses paths with a tiger shark from four meters long which crunches his leg. “It was a few seconds of fighting where I hit where I could, it was survival, remembers the one who is a sailing and ski instructor. As the shark let go of me, there was a series of a few waves that miraculously arrived. I had two strokes of oars to put on my board to return almost to the shore”.

Miraculously and now provided with a leg prosthesis, “Baboo” quickly opens the doors of the France para team. To the point of lining up for the Games this winter. “I ski as if I had my two feet, I have the feeling of my two feet” he explains.

He pursues : “Today, I feel like I have become myself again, I feel alive”. He has the opportunity to crown his Olympic dream with a medal in Beijing, starting Friday.