She is the queen of handisport skiing. At 28, Marie Bochet has already won everything: eight Paralympic titles (four in Sochi in 2014, as many in Pyeongchang in 2018), 22 world titles, 102 World Cup victories. All with just one stick…
The skier from Arêches-Beaufort, in Savoie, was born with a malformation of the left forearm called agenesis. She has a shorter left forearm with a finger at the end, and makes « everything with six fingers rather than ten ».
In Beijing, during the Paralympic Games (from March 4 to 13), she hopes to enrich her collection of medals in the five disciplines of alpine skiing (downhill, super-G, super-combined, giant, slalom). In January, she won four at the Lillehammer Worlds: gold in downhill and giant, bronze in super-G and silver in super combined. Bodes well ahead of China, although she returned from Norway with a shoulder injury that is slow to heal.
The skier, however, almost did not make it. “Over the past two years, I have thought regarding quitting several times”, she says. Faced with the arrival of new competitors, such as the Russian Varvara Voronchikina and the Canadian Mollie Jepsen, she said to herself that she had perhaps had her day.
And then, following the blues, Marie Bochet went back to work. The arrivals in the management of the Blues of Benjamin Ruer and Jeff Piccard, the brother of Franck, the first French Olympic super-G champion, in 1988, in Calgary (Canada), fell on time. “They helped me get out of my comfort zone, to become a better skier”she says.
Twelve years at the highest level
It’s hard to question yourself when you’ve outrageously dominated your discipline for a decade. Marie Bochet did it. “She realized that she had to progress to stay at the top. She has taken a step forward, particularly in the mental approach to competitions. In skiing, you have to be at 100% of your abilities on D-Day”analyzes Christian Fémy, director of ski teams at the French Handisport Federation.
The Savoyarde has been on the Paralympic circuit for twelve years now. At 16, she was the first athlete with a disability to join the ski study section of the Albertville high school (Savoie), with daily physical preparation and a schedule arranged for skiing in winter and studying between April and November. “It was a difficult decision to make, because it involved a lot of sacrifices, but the rigor I acquired in high school was decisive for the future”she explains.
“Our destinies are alikesays her friend Solène Jambaqué, now a physiotherapist, who met her in the France team before retiring from sport. It is the story of a teenager from a mountain village who imposes herself in an environment of older men. It took a lot of character to get there. »
In 2010, she obtained her first victory in the World Cup, but was caught “a big slap” in Vancouver (Canada), for his first participation in the Paralympic Games, failing twice at the foot of the podium. “I was a spectator, fascinated to discover the Games. Not focused enough on my performance. It taught me a lesson.”, she says. Between Vancouver and Sochi, Marie Bochet changes dimension, bringing home five gold medals from Russia.
Low feminization
Above all, it becomes the face of disabled skiing in France. “After Sochi, I chained TV sets and radio studios for three days. It was crazy, I didn’t really realizeshe recalls. Later, I realized that I might represent a model for young people with disabilities and that my media coverage might help advance certain causes. I want to give back what I received. » A role that is all the more important since only 120 competitors are licensed winter sports for disabled people in France, and the vast majority are men.
Much remains to be done to convince young women with disabilities that they can venture out on skis. And, perhaps, become top athletes. Marie Bochet and the snowboarder Cécile Hernandez are also the only women in the French team present at the Paralympic Games in Beijing.
How to explain such a low number of competitors? “It is not a reality specific to women, or even to France, replies the Savoyard. It is difficult to get started, because skiing is an expensive sport. Without the sacrifices of my parents, I would not have started. Travel is expensive, the equipment too. Today I have multiple sponsors and am fully supported, but that’s relatively new. » Since 2016, Marie Bochet has been an employee of the Ministry of the Armed Forces, which allows her to train as much as she wishes.
“Athletes like me who are lucky enough to be in the media have a role to play in encouraging vocations. It’s something close to my heartshe continues. I try to give visibility to my discipline. I receive a lot of testimonials that warm my heart: children tell me that I am a role model for them, because I show them that it is possible to practice high-level sport with a disability. »
“I want a lighter life”
Marie Bochet is probably living her last big date in Beijing. “The 2026 Games in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo seem far away to me. I don’t think I’ll go that farshe says. I still have the same passion for my sport, but I want a lighter life, without all the constraints associated with high-level sport. »
If she retires following Beijing, as she plans, she will leave a big void. “The French disabled ski team lacks new blood, emphasizes Solenne Jambaqué. Since 2010, it has gone from twenty members to only ten, it’s a shame, but the profiles sought are rare: you have to have grown up in the ski world with a disability, there are not many of us in this case . »
After retiring from sport, Marie Bochet plans to stay in the ski world, but she is also tempted to resume her studies. After obtaining her ES baccalaureate (with high honors) in 2013, she was admitted to Sciences Po Paris to prepare a preparatory certificate adapted for high-level athletes.
The skier is also part of the Athletes’ Commission, a body of eighteen athletes chaired by biathlete Martin Fourcade who is working on the preparation of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris. Whatever the outcome of those in Beijing, do not count on it to rest on its laurels.
