From Sydney 2000 to Paris 2024, the impressive longevity at the highest level of French table tennis player Thu Kamkasomphou

The para-pong player is taking part in her seventh Paralympic Games and is aiming for an eleventh medal.

“You don’t talk to me about age.”. Thu Kamkasomphou could make this quote from Kylian Mbappé her own. A 55-year-old para-pong player, the Frenchwoman doesn’t really like being reminded of her age and prefers to focus on her performances and competitiveness, while she is participating in her seventh Paralympic Games. She enters the competition in singles class 8 (significant disability on one or two lower limbs that hinder movement), Tuesday, September 3, with the aim of winning an eleventh Paralympic medal.

A record that would make many athletes pale. Double Paralympic champion (in 2000 and 2008), double Paralympic vice-champion (2012 and 2016) and double bronze medalist (2004 and 2020) in singles, Thu Kamkasomphou also has four bronze medals in team events (2000, 2004, 2008 and 2021). And in Paris? “I always have high goals,” recalls Thu Kamkasomphou, member of the world top 3 and reigning world champion.

This strength of character, the table tennis player perhaps gets it from her history. Born in Laos in 1968, she followed her parents, who fled the civil war, before arriving in France at the age of 10. Her illness, polyarteritis nodosa, was diagnosed at the age of 17.“It’s the blood vessels that are too thin, so it bursts, it makes wounds, which take about six months to heal. It pulls, it stings, and my legs are not sufficiently irrigated and oxygenated.”she explains. However, she continued to compete among able-bodied people and discovered parasport at the same time at the age of 30.

“She was a high-level able-bodied athlete, at 16-17 years old, she was in the French pole, and I think that this experience is useful to her. It is an undeniable asset to compensate for a small physical decline linked to age and the progression of the disease”notes Julien Soyer, team silver medalist in para table tennis at the Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 Paralympic Games and franceinfo: sport consultant.

Thanks to this experience with able-bodied people, “she has a vision of the game and technical moves that her opponents don’t necessarily have”adds Emmanuelle Lennon, her coach and former teammate in the second division at Quimper (Finistère).And at the same time, it’s not always easy because she doesn’t have the same legs anymore, and there’s a memory in the body that thinks it can still go get certain balls, when that’s no longer the case. She has to use her hand more.”she continues.

To ensure its long-term success, Thu Kamkasomphou has known how to surround herself with people. “She is a pioneer in the ability to create a unit around her to achieve her goals. She was able to convince economic partners to support her when women’s parasport was not necessarily very popular, to give herself the opportunity to set up performance systems.”explains Julien Soyer. The latest development: the para-pong player had the same table delivered to her home as the one at the Paris 2024 Games.It’s not a sample of rigor that she has, it’s the whole bottle”laughs Julien Soyer.

This requirement is also the key element of its longevity, according to Emmanuelle Lennon. “I knew her when she was young, I did internships with her and we got up early in the morning to run. She always had this rigor, which she brought to the people she works or trains with.”adds the coach. Leaving nothing to chance to perform, she had also chosen not to apply to be the flag bearer of the French delegation, in order not to leave too much juice there, with an opening ceremony the day before her entry into the competition in mixed doubles.

With seven participations in the Paralympic Games, Thu Kamkasomphou savors the path taken in the exposure of parasport: “In Sydney in 2000, we had a three-minute summary of all the sports on TV in the evening. Today, it’s 300 hours of live coverage, it’s incredible”. After his elimination in the second round in mixed doubles with Lucas Didier, his singles matches will be broadcast on France Télévisions. Before retiring? That’s out of the question. “I’m often asked this question, but after Paris, the very next day, it’s Los Angeles. I’m a competitor and as long as my body leaves me alone, I have the desire and I’m selectable, I’ll still be here.”she promises.