In Vaires-sur-Marne, French para-rowing prepares for the Paralympic Games at home

PARIS 2024 OLYMPICS – “ What interests me is training, eating, sleeping in the same place. Because it involves autonomy, and we reduce the risk of injury. » The man who says these words knows what he is talking about: Charles Delval is vice-president of the Paralympic Coaches Association and head of the performance program of the French Rowing Federation in view of the Paris Paralympic Games, which will open on August 28.

A man who is closely monitoring, on the day we meet him in Seine-et-Marne, several French boats which will be competing for these home Games. Alexis Sanchez, a young Marseillais amputee after a motorcycle accident who will compete in his first Paralympic races in Paris, as well as the intriguing pair composed of Perle Bouge, French disabled sports legend, and Benjamin Daviet, who succeeds in his (slightly) crazy bet swap the cross-country skis on which he usually shines for a rowing shovel.

A capricious pool to understand

In Vaires-sur-Marne, the site which will host the rowing and para-rowing events, as well as the canoe-kayak events during the Games, the French rehearse their ranges and get ahead, as you can see in our video at the top of the article. “ It’s good preparation because it’s a pool that isn’t necessarily easy, where there’s a lot of movement. », Explains Alexis Sanchez, harnessed in his skiff, a narrow boat which only has room for a rower. And for good reason, all the athletes present that day at the nautical base say it, whether they are in the Olympic or Paralympic team: very exposed to the wind, which also changes direction throughout the 2,000 meters that travel through the hulls, the Ile-de-France water body is capricious.

Especially when we have just become teammates and we are still getting to know each other, like Perle Bouge and Benjamin Daviet, both multiple world and Paralympic medalists, but who have only been alongside each other for a few weeks in their boat. “ He’s not a baby rower, but almost », laughs the first, who discovered the Games in 2012, in London.

After the sporting retirement of Perle Bouge’s last partner, the management of the French team and in particular Charles Delval were keen to find him a partner capable of allowing him to aim for a medal at home. “ I looked out for other sports, and I knew that Benjamin’s profile, due to his pathology, could be eligible for para-rowing. », says the head of the FFA. “ And then we said to ourselves that a biathlete, a cross-country skier had the body and could transform into a rower. »

High hopes for medals at the Paralympics

An impression which was confirmed during the Olympic qualifying regatta in Lucerne, Tuesday May 21, where the two French people beat all their competitors to secure a place at the Games. “ We’re a pirate ship, we’re not expected, but we can be there », warns the thirty-year-old with five titles at the Winter Games, standard bearer for the Blues in Beijing in 2022. An athlete who spent the end of 2023 on the ski boards before coming to rowing, where he feeds on “ experience and regularity » from his partner to progress through constant exchanges. And to learn, like after the European Championships at the end of April where Benjamin Daviet exploded in flight at the end of the race after having misjudged his effort.

In addition to its “ PR2 mixed double pair », the French Paralympic team will be able to boast of fielding a boat in each of the five Paralympic races on the Parisian programme: led by Nathalie Benoit and Laurent Cadot in particular, all the blue boats are now qualified. Each time with good chances of medals, even if “ among the paratroopers, we are never safe from a surprise, between the athletes on whom we have no reference and the pathologies of each other », explains Charles Delval.

This is why the French team wants to put all the chances on its side by practicing on the Vaires-sur-Marne race course. A site delivered in 2019 and now perfectly adapted to the constraints of wheelchair athletes, with an accessible canteen, elevators which lead to the athletes’ rooms and above all a ramp which allows them to reach the pontoons to climb into their boat. “ What interests me with para athletes is not to take a minibus to go to accommodation or to eat. », insists Charles Delval, for whom “ avoiding everything that involves transfer means avoiding the risk of injury, transporting chairs and getting in and out of vehicles “.

However, with a major challenge for the future, warns Perle Bouge: that of accessibility once the Games have passed. Because at the moment, you have to at least take an RER and a bus to come from the center of Paris, more if you come from a train station or an airport. If Vaires-sur-Marne really wants to be part of “ the inheritance » left by the Paris Games, to use a term dear to the organizers, it is essential to facilitate access to make it a mecca for disabled sports beyond just the summer meeting.

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