In the middle of the whirlwind caused by a swarm of children in snow class, five adults put on their wetsuits and prepare their skis. Among them, Paul Riché and Mélanie De Bona have a track record as long as the ascent of the neighboring Col du Télégraphe. In Valloire, a postcard-perfect Savoyard resort overlooking the Maurienne valley, these high-level skiers are taking part in a course for the French adapted sports team this January.
Despite fifteen world titles – seven for Paul Riché, eight for Mélanie De Bona – these skiers with “intellectual disabilities” (an IQ below 70 according to the regulations of Virtus, the international federation) will not however participate in the Paralympic Games in Beijing, March 4-13. Present on the program of the Summer Games (in athletics, swimming and table tennis), adapted sport has never appeared in the Winter Games.
At 31, Paul Riché, suffering from trisomy 21, does not understand this exclusion. ” It is unfair. The Paralympic Games are important. It’s not normal that we can’t do them. We train all year round.”launches the skier between two timed slalom sessions.
Advocacy intensifies with Mélanie De Bona, the skier from Lans-en-Vercors (Isère): “It’s not solidarity. I feel a lack of recognition. It annoys me. » “They are multiple world champions and know they might go for medals at the Gamesdeplores their trainer, Rémi Gounon. I would so love for my kids to taste it at least once. »
The cancellation of the Worlds, hard to take
Close to the Sunday skiers, the members of the French alpine ski center for adapted sports do a series of slaloms. Each time he crosses the finish line, Paul Riché encourages himself loudly: ” Yeah ! », « Oh yes ! » This never ceases to impress his comrade Mélanie De Bona: “That’s a hell of a number. He shouts, encourages everyone. He is super impressive. When you see it pass, it looks like a supernova. » This does not surprise the national technical director (DTN) of adapted alpine skiing, Carole Saindeff: “For Paul, each round is like a world championship. »
This year, as since 2020, Paul Riché will not even have the opportunity to win additional titles. Scheduled in March in Austria, the Worlds were canceled for the third consecutive time, when other sports competitions for able-bodied or disabled sports took place in the country at the height of the epidemic. “The excuse is to say that it is a fragile public. However, there are no comorbidities at all.regrets Carole Saindeff.
The news, announced at the start of the Savoyard course, was hard to take. “In adapted sport, emotions are multiplied. It’s not easy to move onsays Rémi Gounon. We try to put them back in the right direction by refocusing them on the French championships. » To try to compensate, the French Federation of adapted sport organizes an international round in parallel with the French championships, from March 30 to April 2.
What doesn’t stop Melanie De Bona from expressing her anger: “It annoys us, the Covid. » And a certain discouragement for Paul Riché, who seems determined to stop his career at the end of the season following eight years at the top level. “The Worlds, that was my goalsays the skier from Chamrousse (Isère). I will not change my mind. »
Disability classification work drags on
Even if the management of the Blues manages to make him reconsider his decision – “We are not here to force him but we will try to convince him”loose Rémi Gounon –, Paul Riché knows that he will not participate in the Paralympic Games either in four years in Italy, in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo. Adapted alpine skiing has no chance of making its way there. Unlike adapted Nordic skiing, which has a part to play.
“At the level of France, we are trying to convince the International Paralympic Committee [CIP] to open trials to the mentally handicapped. They have their place there.” explains Marie-Paule Fernez, DTN of the French Federation of adapted sport. Eight years ago, we were told that our athletes did not have the required level. Today, we are told that the classifications are not yet sufficiently complete. »
The International Federation of Adapted Sports retains only one criterion for its competitions: an IQ less than or equal to 70, with a margin of plus or minus 5 points. However, to appear in the Paralympic Games, the IPC requires an additional criterion: it must also be demonstrated that the intellectual disability has an impact on the practice of sport. For the moment, this work of classification of the handicap drags in length. If he started for Nordic skiing, he has not started for alpine skiing.
The cancellation of adapted sports competitions has not helped. “In 2019, we organized the Worlds. We had invited the CIP classifiers to the Nordic skiing events. They had also been convinced to at least observe the alpine skiing eventstells Marie-Paule Fernez. The mayonnaise was setting. And then, hell. The Covid has stopped everything. »
An adapted sport representative on the Paralympic Committee
Unlike the Summer Paralympic Games, where the numerus clausus of 4,200 places has been reached, there is still room for the Winter Games. What makes the French DTN optimistic: “It seems reasonable to us to have cross-country skiing at least as a demonstration sport in 2026.”
It would also be necessary to overcome prejudices. At the Sydney Games in 2000, the Spanish basketball team cheated by fielding players who did not have a disability. The sanction had been collective for all adapted sport, which was only reinstated in 2012 at the Paralympic Summer Games.
For Carole Saindeff, mental disability “not being visible”It is “more difficult to put oneself in the shoes of these athletes”. Especially since at the international level, decision-makers have long come exclusively from the world of visual and physical disabilities. For the first time, in December 2021, an adapted sport representative was elected to the IPC. “No one has until now spoken regarding mentally handicapped athletes. Australian Robyn Smith, general secretary of Virtus, will finally have this possibility »wants to believe Marie-Paule Fernez.
One more step to hope to win the fight for integration. In Valloire, coach Rémi Gounon hopes that Paul Riché will still have the opportunity to celebrate victories. “Paul is a singer from Marseillaise. He puts his whole heart into it.”, he confides. And that his successors may one day dream of Paralympic podiums.
