2024-09-05 06:17:39
On Thursday, the Cecifoot Blues won the right to once again light up the world’s most beautiful stadium at the foot of the Eiffel Tower for a historic quarter-final against Colombia, their first in Paralympic history. Entering this stage of the competition for the first time. But our blindfolded hero acts like a tree, masking France’s shortcomings in team sports.
In addition to the elimination of the basketball players, after four defeats in as many games, the Goalball Blues have never managed a victory despite a strong performance especially against Germany, as did the French sitting volleyball team and The same goes for the wheelchair rugby team, which despite medal ambitions, has not yet reached the top level. The situations are obviously all different, the context and dynamics are different, however, in a country that is used to running mechanisms, and we saw it again at the Olympics when it comes to the French United Sports Team, the balance sheet is a bit poor.
How do we explain that, in the seven years it took Paris to host the Olympics, we failed to lay the foundations for a real sports policy that would not be good, but at least be good in the eyes of the world? Is it really serious to throw a seated volleyball player into a lion’s den? I haven’t touched a ball since middle school. ?
Sitting volleyball player, the “Rasta Rocket” of this Olympics
“When the coaches talk about volleyball, I’m the only one who understands that’s why they gave me the armband,” team captain Jenna Agbodjan Prince told our colleagues solemnly parisian. After her players’ eventual defeat against China on Tuesday night, coach Dominique Duvivier realized she couldn’t perform miracles with a team that defines her when questioned. And smiling, like “the Rasta Rockets of sitting volleyball.”
“It’s been five years since we started our 2024 program and we have grouped regularly and established clubs and structures,” she explained. For a country with just over 300 licensees, five years is too short a time to energize the profession. It wasn’t even enough to make a full team, as the Blues had nine men when they could have had twelve. But two players, including the then-captain, were declassified by the committee before the Olympics began. “Proportionally speaking, that’s a lot for us,” Duvivier assured. »
So there is no hope for anything other than a purely fun adventure in Paris. In croquet, the issues are pretty much the same. The sport has only been around for a few years and clubs are far from swarming in the area. From that point forward, the games felt more like life-size discoveries than anything else. But even in wheelchair basketball, a sport that is more developed in France, with nearly 70 clubs across the country, or wheelchair rugby, we feel the gap between us and the best countries in the world.
Money can’t buy happiness, but…
For armchair rugby director of operations Michel Terrefond, you don’t have to look far to see the crux of the matter. “Common sports is not a priority for the Parasports Federation or the ANS, let us be clear. What we want is to get as high as possible in the medal rankings, but unlike swimming, cycling or athletics, each team in joint sports is only To get a medal, from that moment on, we will always be left behind. »
Across the street, after his team’s wheelchair basketball player was unable to play against Team USA, Blues coach Kevin Bonaland admitted it was all a matter of means.
“Big countries like the United States or the United Kingdom have training programs with almost unlimited budgets. Spain is professional and Germany is professional, which means their clubs are professional teams, some of which are run by big companies,” he explained. Sponsored. We are far from it. We have a federation, FFH, which I thank, that provides us with the means to train, to hold championships to qualify, but despite that, we are not boxing in the same category. . »
Should we leave the Hand Sports Federation?
Jean Minier, sports director of the French Paralympic and Sports Council (CPSF), prefers to see the glass as half full. “The results are not extraordinary, but they are not catastrophic either,” he judged. I thought the goal team and sitting volleyball team played well. They’re not even at the highest level on the European stage, they’re a team in the building phase and from the perspective of these Olympics, they’re really building themselves. But building a high-performing team in such a short time is complex. »
For him, the problem is that the sports clubs involved do not “provide a good daily training structure for disabled athletes”. “Since we cannot rely on these clubs for daily training, we have to regularly bring athletes together to participate in training sessions with the French team for international competitions, but this is very expensive,” he continued.
Michel Trefont said that the French Paralympic Sports Federation would be overwhelmed if it managed at least 11 of the 22 sports involved in the Paralympic Games. “We can’t run so many para sports and achieve a high level of performance within one federation that has to manage everything,” he explained. The FFH did not respond to our request when we contacted it.
Therefore, some, such as Michel Terrefond, prefer to leave the FFH and include sports that wish to be integrated into the parent federation. This is the case, for example, with sitting volleyball now controlled by FFV. “We can integrate into the Rugby Football Union and we won’t cost them more than the Disabled Sports Federation,” he assured us. She has some business partners who do CSR (corporate social responsibility) and they are willing to invest more money. Because if money does not create medals, then money contributes a lot to medals. »
Breathing fresh air is called Paralympics?
But if you don’t have a license and you don’t have a club that welcomes people with disabilities, it won’t help if you have all the money in the world. In this sense, the French Paralympics must inspire a movement, a “breathing air”, as French cycling team coach Laurent Tirione puts it, who relies heavily on the performance of his athletes to attract New franchise athletes. But a sport is never more attractive than the results it brings. However, given the situation with the United sports teams this summer, it’s uncertain whether the youngsters would be willing to take the plunge. This is a snake biting its own tail.
Still, results aren’t everything. In this regard, the public enthusiasm for rugby and wheelchair basketball, sitting volleyball or goalball can give a little hope to those who hope to achieve better results in the future, rather than at the next Paralympic Games in Los Angeles Excellent performance. This is the wish of Dominique Duvivier.
« “We hope to benefit from the exposure these Olympics bring us and attract new practitioners, especially younger practitioners, because they are clearly going to be the future. We have developed the structure over the last few months and we hope There is more. We have to move forward and this event will allow us to grow in the region » »
By using the Olympics at home as a springboard rather than an end, it is hoped that the means for clubs and communities will follow. This would be the best way to show that the legacy of the 2024 Olympics is not just a simple marketing slogan, but a social reality. After all, dreams are always allowed.
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