Presenting the various disabled sports available in the department was the objective of the day of May 2022, 10, organized by the Handphyclub association. The association offers swimming lessons for people with disabilities, as well as sports shooting. But for this day all disabled sports were honored around the Grésilles swimming pool in Dijon which hosted the event. Several Côte d’Or clubs such as the DFCO or the JDA offered visitors the opportunity to test their sports.
A disabled sports forum
In front of the Grésilles swimming pool, several clubs have set up their presentation stands. Right next door, in the Jean Marion gymnasium, visitors are invited to try out wheelchair football, wheelchair basketball or table tennis. Everyone can participate: people with disabilities who want to discover a sport, but also able-bodied people who want to put themselves in the shoes of an invalid athlete.
In Côte-d’Or, the various disabled sports are developing well, according to Jordan Godillet, project manager at the Handisport Committee of Côte d’Or, the department “is in constant progress, the offer is greater so it is easier to find his sport”. 400 people are now licensed for disabled sports in Côte-d’Or and 29 clubs offer these activities.
Most able-bodied sports can be adapted for disabled sports
The Handphyclub challenge
The organizing association Handphyclub also offered a separate activity to introduce disabled people to swimming. Fifty swimmers, valid (disabled) and invalid took turns to swim a maximum of kilometers.
57.5 kilometers were traveled in all, so it was a successful challenge since the objective was to exceed 40 kilometers. For each kilometer traveled, the association offers future partners to pay 30 euros. This action will make it possible to hire lifeguards and develop the activity of the association.
A very special day for Adrien, he takes part in the association’s swimming lessons every week as a disabled person. For him, it is first and foremost a sports challenge : “I always want to go further, when I succeed in something, to start over to do it even better”.
Part of the DFCO women’s team was also present. Rose Lavaud, one of the team’s attackers, tried her hand at swimming with one arm: her left arm was stuck to her body with an elastic band. “I didn’t think it would be so complicated to swim with one arm, it got tired of me quickly”she admits.