Slightly veiled by the enthusiasm generated by the success of Antoine Dupont’s integration into France 7 with a view to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, other high-level athletes are preparing to defend the tricolor jersey this summer.
This is the case of Jonathan Hivernat, captain of the French wheelchair rugby teamwho will lead his people during the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games from August 28 to September 8. Rugby News went to meet him and reveals to you 5 things to know about this extraordinary athlete.
The three lives of Jonathan Hivernat
Some scandals have marred the Paralympic Games in the past, when certain teams thought it appropriate to have athletes who did not have the required disabilities take part in the events.
In order to be eligible for wheelchair rugby, you must, for example, have a disability that affects all four limbs. This is the case for Jonathan Hivernat, who received his diagnosis at the very beginning of his adolescence.
“I have Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, which is really different from Charcot disease. It is also a neurological attack but at the level of the nerves, from the spinal cord to the extremities of the body. So I have either a partial or total abolition of nerve conduction which evolves over time, that is to say I can find myself paralyzed in all my limbs over time,” explains the co-captain. , with his friend Matthieu Thiriet, from Stade Toulouse disabled rugby.
A “normally genetic and hereditary” disease, which in his case is a little special since it has never occurred in members of his family.
In fact I’ve had three lives. A life in good health, a life of poor walking and a life with a disability in a permanent manual wheelchair.
A former shy person transformed by life
If you ever meet Jonathan Hivernat, you will encounter a man with a smile irremediably stuck to his face, approachable and at ease in discussions. Which, according to him, was absolutely not always the case.
“Before I was the man I am, I was a child who was completely unsure of himself, very introverted, who was at the back of the class. If he could disappear and just listen to the teacher, copy the lesson and above all not be questioned… that would be me,” he jokes.
But that was before life passed by, and transformed him both physically and psychologically: “This change came through the experiences I had, the people who pushed me to get out of my zone of comfort. It hasn’t always been easy, but I have always had a very positive dynamic, in order to learn things whatever they are, to confront them whether they are good or bad, and to go to the work if needed. Or even sharing and reaching out to people, or letting myself be surrounded by people who could help me. »
A saving opening for Jonathan, a refusal to endure which he now elevates into a philosophy.
This is the real key to life that can lead to success: it is to give yourself everything you need to achieve it, whatever the outcome ultimately, to have no regrets and to be proud of what we have accomplished.
High-level sportsman and bon vivant
Rugby and good food are often associated, and there is no reason why armchair rugby should be an exception to the rule. Even more so when the southwest region and its temptations are right there, within reach of a fork.
As a high-level sportsman as he is, Jonathan Hivernat obviously lets himself be tempted from time to time, as much to satisfy a self-confessed sweet tooth as for the convivial aspect.
“We make it seem like we’re just training, but we always end up having good hobbies. I reflect certain Toulouse values including good living, so I like sharing a lot of things with my friends and family members, and even discovering other people and getting to know them. And in front of a good cultural meal from the region, it’s always something that delights me and recharges my batteries! This is perhaps my particularity, I am a man of sharing and of heart,” he smiles.
He was not particularly a rugby player before wheelchair rugby
Jonathan Hivernat has always been a sportsman. But by his own admission, he had dabbled in a bit of everything growing up and up until his diagnosis at 13. In rugby in particular? “I did a little, when I was in good health, football and tennis too,” he replies. In short, he wasn’t particularly tough. He subsequently turned away somewhat from team sports.
“I did table tennis and also horse riding during my teenage years. I returned to individual sport. For what ? Because I wanted to prove to myself that maybe I could do it on my own. Except that I was also wrong about certain things. And in fact I did a 360 degree turn…”
“There is a debate on the expression, is it a 360 or 180 turn… I say 360 today, maybe tomorrow I will say 180. But when the disease continued to progress, I asked myself questions if I wanted to get involved in the representative sports where I was. And actually, it’s not that I was wrong but it wasn’t totally me. »
Then, as often, came the right opportunity, the meeting. An initiation offered by the Toulouse team in its rehabilitation center which immediately piqued his curiosity.
“Before I saw them, as I approached the gymnasium, I could really hear the loud, muffled sounds of the chairs. And I was like, wow, but this is really real and it’s really true. They literally crash into each other and at the speed they actually want,” he recalls.
There are no barriers, total commitment is there. And in fact, when I also saw the goal of the game, the specificity, the complementarity, I said to myself, this sport is made for me. And little by little, I wanted to get involved.
Indeed, just during training matches at Stade Toulouse disabled rugby, the collisions are intense, the shocks thunderous, and the pace of play breathtaking!
His competition chair costs the price of a car
As the saying goes, good tools make good workers. However, we imagine that a little training and experience are welcome. However, the fact remains that practicing a high-level sport cannot be done without adequate equipment.
Deploring “a certain delay on the part of France” with regard to the equipment necessary for the practice of wheelchair rugby or quad rugby (for quadriplegic rugby), Jonathan Hivernat, like his partners, brings his chair from the United States, where it is custom-made and adapted to the degrees of disability of each athlete. Equipment whose price is between 10,000 and 15,000 euros, according to Jonathan.
An armchair that looks like it came out of the movie Mad Max, gloves to compensate for the lack of hand motor skills and better grip the wheels for pushing, and a… round ball.
“This sport was invented in the 1970s by former hockey players who unfortunately became quadriplegic after their matches. They wanted to rediscover the sensations they had in hockey, so they thought about their level of handicap and what they could not catch. For example, an oval balloon. »
“So they said to themselves, why not take the lightest ball, the most easily handled, whatever our injuries, to be able to pass. And it’s a volleyball. It is the most understandable ball. We can rebound, we can pass, we can catch it and redistribute it. »
These hockey players were inspired by volleyball, basketball, football and rugby and ice hockey to form quad rugby, which is the name of wheelchair rugby at the Paralympic Games but was originally called Murderball, the deadly ball. ! The name referred to all the commitment that it entails. We can literally crash into each other, there is no constraint, at the speed we want with or without a ball for example!
In June, Jonathan and his partners will fly to Vancouver to face the world’s elite in a major rehearsal before the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, where “six teams can claim the gold medal” according to him. Including France, obviously. And that’s all the harm we wish him!
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