six disabled swimmers rise to the challenge in the Pacific

“It’s an indescribable feeling what we did, and it’s so, at least for me, out of the ordinary”, says a disabled swimmer. They swam to the other end of the globe, to surpass themselves and to torpedo prejudices about disability. Back on the fabulous adventure of Nolan, Natasha, Elisa and Selam, in Tahiti. Vichy (Allier), at the beginning of winter. It is 6 o’clock in the morning at the Philippe Croizon Academy boarding school. You have to eat breakfast quickly before training at dawn. Swim and dream of being a disabled sports champion. A common ambition to join the academy, and its intensive training.

Before high school, do two hours of swimming. An almost daily routine, essential in the face of the challenge that awaits them: in a month, they will swim 20 km in relay between the islands of Tahiti and Moorea. Elisa from Lyon, was born with arthrogryposis of the upper limbs. “Their handicap should not be seen as a limit, it should rather be seen as things that we can do, and that we can do better and better and which will allow us to go quickly”says Fabien Malfait, trainer at the Philippe Croizon Academy. “Beyond the stress and all that, the luck of these young people is that thanks to the disability, they will do things that they certainly might never have done if they had not been disabled. . That’s where it’s extraordinary”declares Robert Fassolette, the director of the Academy.