“It’s not the medal as such that is important. This is the story behind. Autistic and dyspraxic, Valérie Desroches has been the victim of exclusion more often than not, in life as in her sport. Over the obstacles, injustices and frustrations, she stood tall.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
Valérie Desroches welcomes us to her apartment in the Rosemont district of Montreal on a Wednesday in July. She’s wearing her white karate pants. At the entrance, on the right, she shows us the room she has transformed into what she calls a “mini-dojo”. No doubt: we are dealing with a passionate person.
For 45 minutes, the karateka tells us her story. A story of determination and resilience that led her to win gold at the WUKF Parakarate World Championships in early July.
Already, at the age of 6, Valérie Desroches felt “different”. She excelled on the school benches, but struggled to make friends, to maintain conversations with other students of her age. So we laughed at her. They told her she wasn’t smart. That she was too shy. They intimidated him.
When I was in fourth grade, my teacher was fed up that I was always with the same friend. She said to my friend, ”Go make some other friends.” So I was on my own. People kept teasing me. I was getting worms thrown at me.
Valerie Desroches
All her life she searched for answers. Seeked to understand why she “didn’t feel good around people.” “There was a feeling of discomfort, I had to be prepared all the time to speak. [Mon médecin] told me I was shy. »
It was in a master’s course in orthopedagogy at the University of Montreal that she had a click.
[Les professeurs] showed videos of people with autism and I really recognized myself. I was really in shock.
Valerie Desroches
As her doctor refused to acknowledge that she had a disorder, she went to a private clinic. This is where she finally got the answer: she had Asperger’s syndrome. Diagnosis in hand, she returned to see her doctor. “He told me, word for word: ‘This world doesn’t give a damn about life. You can’t be autistic because you have a master’s degree.’”
Back to karate
About two years after she was diagnosed and now that she “understands [ses] difficulties,” Valérie Desroches decided to start practicing a sport she had left aside for too long: karate.
I wanted to get my black belt. But when I went back, I compared myself to people and I said to myself: there is something else that does not work. Not just autism. There was something wrong with the engine. I was very wrong in the movements.
Valerie Desroches
An occupational therapist told her that she had motor dyspraxia, a coordination disorder. That explained a lot of things, like the fact that she had trouble running both fast and in a straight line.
At the Montreal karate club where she trained – and whose name she prefers to keep silent – she was once again the victim of exclusion. Pretexting that the fight was not of her “level”, her trainer put her in a corner. “They didn’t even give me a chance to try. They let me do kata on my own,” she recalls.
For five years, Desroches has been training at the Metropolis Karate club in Montreal North, which has welcomed her with open arms. “The coach really adapted to my style, which is more sequential,” she says.
The athlete also recently learned that she suffered from hypertension, a muscle disorder that causes “permanent muscle stiffness”. To perform the same exercises as other karatekas, she must put double, even “triple or quadruple” effort.
Parakarate
In 2016, Desroches tried to make his place with the Canadian parakarate team, within the World Karate Federation (WKF). But we refused it. “If you were autistic, you had to have an intellectual disability. Which is not my case, ”she explains.
So she devoted herself body and soul to elite combat, until it became too difficult due to dyspraxia and hypertonia. Last December, she tried her hand at parakarate again, this time with the World Union of Karate-do Federations (WUKF), where she was accepted. She falls into the category of athletes with learning disabilities.
On July 6, our protagonist was rewarded for her determination and tenacity: she emerged victorious in her category at the WUKF World Parakarate Championships in Florida.
PHOTO OLIVIER JEAN, THE PRESS
Valérie Desroches shows off the gold medal she won at the WUKF World Parakarate Championships.
“I really gave it my all. I made two beautiful katas. What was really interesting was that there were lots of different athletes. It was really beautiful to see,” she says, with a smile on her lips and her imposing gold medal around her neck.
Help young people
Valérie Desroches has been a remedial teacher at Alex Manoogian-D’Armen school in Saint-Laurent for nine years. ” See [les enfants] succeeding is so beautiful. […] That’s what feeds me. »
During the pandemic, she co-wrote a book titled A fight for inclusion. The character, Naomi, experiences everything that Valerie experienced. At the end, you can consult an educational guide that offers inclusion strategies to the workers who will read it.
PHOTO OLIVIER JEAN, THE PRESS
Valérie Desroches co-wrote a book entitled A fight for inclusion.
In his sport as in his life, Desroches will always have to deal with his daily conditions. It’s “very exhausting”, but she is “not at all embarrassed”. On the contrary.
“I like to tell people about my story, to show that you have to face obstacles,” she suggests.