SERIES. Paris 2024: the Paralympic Games logbook

What is the daily life of a Paralympic athlete? How do we prepare for an event like the Paris 2024 Games? Is it possible to change the outlook on disability through such an event? These questions – and many others – led the editorial staff of franceinfo: sport to propose a format where the floor would return directly to the French sportsmen and women who are aiming for the Paralympic Games.

This monthly logbook is made available to six athletes working in different disciplines and facing unique issues. For this first episode, Manon Genest (para athletics), Gwendoline Matos (goalball) and Sofyane Mehiaoui (wheelchair basketball) discuss, in particular, the management of qualification for this “competition of a lifetime”.

Manon Genest • 30 years old • long jump T37 (left hemiplegia after a road accident at 22 years old)

“It’s more peaceful for me because I am officially qualified for the Games”

This summer was full of emotions! After my bronze medal at the World Para Athletics Championships in Paris in July, I took a complete break from sport for a month. I needed to recharge my batteries with my husband and my 18 month old daughter. We had our honeymoon two years late, hallelujah! And there, I came back to training since September. It’s more peaceful for me because I am officially qualified for the Games, I received my certificate from the President of the Republic during Paralympic Day at the beginning of October, it was very moving. As a result, I am in a different state of mind compared to the athletes who are still in the search for quotas. It’s a luxury but that doesn’t stop me from sending good doses to training!

I train in Saint-Médard-en-Jalles, in Gironde. On a small stadium where I’m all alone and that’s very good. I meet middle and high school students, they encourage me around the track, it’s so cute! At the same time, I continue to work as a prevention officer at the Ministry of the Armed Forces, without forgetting the job of a young mother, my other full-time job! I can reconcile all of this because I have found my balance. But everyone has their own. Some athletes prefer to just concentrate on their career one year before the Games, but I couldn’t do it. I tried for Tokyo and it didn’t really bring me luck.

Since I qualified, everyone asks me: “ASo do you feel ready?” Of course not, ten months from the deadline, not at all! “Are you aiming for first place, after your bronze at the Worlds?” On the day of the competition, everything is reset, so no. And there is also the injury that can happen. I’m in a sport that requires explosiveness, I’m already 30 years old so you have to be careful. I often remind myself that I will be at the Games provided that something does not happen in my preparation. And at the same time, I understand people’s expectations, who are full of enthusiasm and that’s great. I have a mental trainer who works a lot with me on pressure, and having my family and work allows me to move on quite quickly.

Gwendoline Matos • 29 years old • goalball (rare genetic disease of the retina since she was 7)

“There is stress on a daily basis, I am asked when I am going to play even though I am not yet sure of being selected”

There is soon a big deadline coming up for us with the French team, it is the European Championships (division 1) in Montenegro during the first two weeks of December. We arrived at Creps (Sports Expertise and Performance Resource Center) in Wattignies (Hauts-de-France) a few days ago. For the moment, I am selected with the Blues until December 31, then there will be a new selection next year for the Games, where we are automatically qualified. Fingers crossed I’ll be there!

Goalball is the only women’s team sport that exists at the Paralympic Games. Two years ago now, I started to develop my social networks extensively to make my discipline known. As there is no equivalent to the Olympic Games, we are starting from afar. It took off quite well, people have been asking me quite a bit for some time now for awareness raising because when you type “goalball” on the internet, it’s true that people come across me quite quickly.

I work as a disability representative in the sports department of the Doubs department, that is to say I support people with disabilities in order to help them find an activity, a club, etc. I have a schedule arranged as a high-level athlete. I train twice a week with my club in Besançon, and I also have two individual training sessions and weight training sessions at the gym.

For three years, I feel that having the Games at home has accelerated a lot of things. We now have a complete staff in the French team with a video analyst, a physiotherapist, a nutritionist, a physical trainer, a mental trainer… It is progressing, and at the same time it adds pressure because Paris 2024, we hear about it talk all the time. I think about the injury, I try to be careful every day… But that doesn’t stop me from living my life normally.

Sofyane Mehiaoui • 40 years old • wheelchair basketball (poliomyelitis contracted at the age of one)

“During the qualifying tournament in Antibes, in April 2024, that’s where everything will be decided for us”

Lately, I have done a lot of awareness raising in schools and businesses about disabilities, wheelchairs, practicing a sporting activity… When athletes come to see the students, there is immediately a connection , a proximity that is created, we show that we can be high-level athletes and accessible despite everything. It is a form of communion that we hope to keep until Paris 2024.

With the French team, our participation in the Games will be played out in Antibes next April, during the Paralympic qualifying tournament. There will be eight teams competing and you will have to be in the top four. I’m disappointed that armchair basketball isn’t automatically qualified, to be honest. It’s a lot of sacrifices, I’ve been part of the national team since 2005. Not being qualified, yes, it’s a bit difficult, especially since very often, team sports are automatically qualified. On the other hand, at least if we are at the Games, it will mean that we deserved to be there, that we knew how to handle the pressure. There will be something to be proud of.

Wheelchair basketball is a separate sport in the Paralympic program, it is one of the first disciplines to have been presented at the first Games, in Rome, in 1960. After the Second World War, there was this desire to offer injured people and other people with disabilities a team sport that does not require a lot of equipment. Today, his practice is well developed, there are different championships, European Cups… We have a match every weekend, we train all the time so we have follow-up and a regular rhythm . This allows us to level up even if there is still a way to go.

I spent a few seasons of my career in Italy in particular, and I had an almost professional status. When you get paid to train twice a day, to play matches, that changes a lot of things. I was followed and the media coverage was stronger. Today, for example, the members of the British wheelchair basketball team are all professionals. In France, it’s more difficult because there are a lot of players who work on the side, we can’t ask them to train twice a day, they have a family life. I am lucky to have partners who support me, which allows me to be available for my sport. But this allows us to measure the difference that still exists at the high level.