For her last junior competition, Mayennaise Heïdi Gauguin achieved an incredible performance by winning two medals at the Junior World Track Cycling Championships in Tel Aviv, Israel last week: the points race after the team pursuit. At 17 years old, the native of Coëvrons was selected in the French team of valid, she who was born without her left forearm. Winning these two events is therefore a source of immense joy and pride for her.
“I’m just super happyshe says. Realizing all these months of work is simply exceptionalDays and days of training started last winter, mainly in Spain and Portugal. to join the valid team.The fact that I’m here _It shows that a disability is not necessarily a weakness._. Yes I don’t have my left forearm so it’s more complicated to shoot for the sprint, but it’s not that complicated to manage.”
Heidi Gauguin has received many messages from people with disabilities and Paralympic athletes to congratulate her. “They tell me what I’m doing is really amazing and they’re happy for me, so I hope that I show the way, that I show that we can run with the able-bodied and that you even have to do it to improve.”
Next deadline for Heidi Gauguin, the Road Nations Cup on September 7 in the Netherlands. Further, of course, there is the Paralympic Games in Paris 2024 before being able, perhaps, to participate in the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028 with the able-bodied.