2023-11-10 05:00:01
In Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, in the den of track cycling, the best para table tennis players from around the world meet until November 12. The objective: to get closer to qualifying for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.
“It’s a bit special to play in the middle of a track, the stands are far away but there is a hypnotizing side when you enter the enclosure.” In a few words, Matéo Bohéas perfectly summed up the general impression, once through the doors of the Vélodrome de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (Yvelines), to discover the French Open, an international para table tennis competition.
Thursday, November 9, the gaze of the Paralympic vice-champion in Tokyo (class 10, atrophy of the left calf), like that of everyone, is magnetized by the center of the arena. The stands overlook the 18 tables installed in the heart of the enclosure, which will host the track cycling events of the Olympic and Paralympic Games next summer.
The sounds of the usual frenetic pedal strokes are replaced by the echo of bouncing balls. In the corridors, snowshoes sit alongside brakeless bikes, roughly stored and never far from their natural terrain. A way to remind you that this transformed velodrome is only temporarily, until November 12.
The Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines national Vélodrome, converted into a luxury setting for the French Open of para table tennis, November 9, 2023. (©Rémy GROS / ITTF)
On the central red floor, Roza Soposki multiplies the lengths. The performance manager of the French team comes to chat with the French athletes, to inquire regarding their condition, to give them a few words of encouragement before their matches. For her, this tournament is “the second largest in the world in terms of density and level of play”with the presence “not trivial” of the Chinese delegation. The opportunity to compete once morest strong and emerging nations – like Thailand – and to try, for the 22 French table tennis players, to gain valuable points in the world “ranking”, which will determine at the end of March the qualifying places for Paris 2024.
A French team in the process of being rejuvenated
“We have a solid group that is here to perform, with a new generation that has emergedshe specifies. Between London 2012 and Tokyo 2021, there were only two new qualifiers for the Games. Next year there will be five or six. This proves that we have carried out real detection and support work. We are now trying to build a balance, with young people who aspire to quickly climb onto a Paralympic podium.”
Flora Vautier (class 4, paraplegic), 19 years old, and Lucie Hautière (class 8, hemiplegic), 23 years old, are among the main headliners of this flourishing generation. If both have profiles more stamped “Los Angeles 2028”, they hope to put all the chances on their side to shine at home in less than 300 days. “From January, I will do six or seven tournaments to try to progress in the rankings and qualify for the Games”, confides Lucie Hautière who, for the record, lives a five-minute walk from the Vélodrome. Flora Vautier hopes to get her ticket via the ladies’ doubles. “It’s going to be an intense period, but we don’t want to regret anything.”
Lucie Hautière (class 8) in the middle of a group match during the international para table tennis tournament in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, November 9, 2023. (©Rémy GROS / ITTF)
In his orange t-shirt, Joffrey Nizan does not go unnoticed. With a smile on his face, the tournament director supervises the meetings. He looks back on the creation, in 2021, of the first edition of this international competition, while France had not hosted one since 2014. “Our objective was to show what parasport can be, to allow our local athletes to be at home and to highlight the quality of our training structure here at SQY Ping.”
“In people’s minds, the Paralympic athlete is often represented in a wheelchair. And in the velodrome, there are no wheelchairs. The para cyclists all walk. Bringing the wheelchair into this Olympic and Paralympic space, it was interesting and symbolic for us.”
Joffrey Nizan, tournament director
at franceinfo: sport
Club of the urban community of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, SQY Ping is today a reference in para table tennis. But originally, it was located in Voisins-le-Bretonneux and had “very few members” remembers Joffrey Nizan. “We played in a school, there was no room… The club gradually grew until a high-level athlete, Florence Sireau-Gossiaux, came to see us. She was looking for a new structure for help him qualify for the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games. There was a response from people with disabilities, who saw that the support was there. We also established a partnership with EREA Toulouse-Lautrec de Vaucresson. Today, all disabilities combined, there are 35 to 45 athletes licensed at the club, with three high-level athletes trying to get their ticket for Paris 2024. And Florence Sireau-Gossiaux is now the president of the club, all sections combined.”
A false rehearsal before the Games?
Installed in the stands, the six French table tennis players from class 11 (intellectual disability) are preparing to enter the fray. Lucas Créange and Léa Ferney, bronze and silver medalists in Tokyo, are still chasing their qualification next summer. “They come to win and get as many ranking points as possible”says Marie-Paule Fernez, national technical director of the French Adapted Sports Federation (FFSA).
For her, there is no question of talking regarding a dress rehearsal before the Games. “It’s not the same configuration, nor the same location (the para table tennis tournament will take place at the Arena Paris Sud). For foreigners, it looks more like it, with an almost similar movement. For us, it’s a home Open, in which we have to shine.” An opinion shared by Matéo Bohéas. “In my category, all the best are missing”specifies the third in the world. “We’re fighting a little bit from a distance, but when it really counts, they’ll be there.”
Matéo Bohéas in action during the international para table tennis tournament, in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, November 9, 2023. (©Rémy GROS / ITTF)
Near the locker rooms, children climb into wheelchairs and take positions on both sides of a table. As best they can, they try to pass the buck by taming their machine. On a winning move, one of them exclaims: “There you go, like the Lebrun brothers!”
Félix and Alexis Lebrun, the locomotives of an entire discipline
This snapshot illustrates the growing notoriety of the two brothers, Félix and Alexis, rising stars of the able-bodied discipline. On social networks, videos of quite crazy exchanges featuring one or the other are often exhibited, and enjoy some success. From there to say that, thanks to them, table tennis is becoming popular? “They are doing a lot of good, a lot of people are becoming more interested in our sportrejoices Joffrey Nizan. At the club, young people start playing with a pen holder like Félix Lebrun. I think there is real emulation and identification.”
“They have a crazy level of play, there is a big ‘hype’ for ping at the moment”adds Matéo Bohéas. “In addition, they are two great guys, humble and passionate. With Félix, we did sessions in Montpellier. Now, can this have repercussions on Paralympic athletes? I don’t know. We have always been a sport which brought in a lot of medals at the Games, in Tokyo we were the leading providers (11 medals). But their examples can generate vocations, including among people with disabilities. In all cases, it creates a positive momentum for next year and we intend to seize it.”
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