Track Cycling. Sep 1 2021. Florian JOUANNY (FRA) gold medal Race H2. Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games Road cycling
Without taboo, we invite you to answer the question: What are the Paralympic Games worth?
Their holding, 15 days after the end of the Olympic Games, is part of an ambitious project of the Organizing Committee (COJOP Paris 2024): the inclusion of people with disabilities.
The most logical solution would be to include these disabled sports events within the Olympic Games reserved for able-bodied people.
A problem of reception capacity inevitably arises while many “able-bodied” sports deplore the elimination of certain of their disciplines (canoeing, track cycling, table tennis, etc.) or their absence from the program (karate, squash). , roller-skate, etc.) due to lack of places and time.
As things stand, the Paralympic Games, a few days after the Olympic Games, are essential.
However, the trend is evolving thanks to groupings, inspired by international federations on the occasion of continental or world championships. All find themselves competing in the same event, an unrivaled way of succeeding in the challenge of inclusion!
Morelon-Trentin, inseparable Friends and rivals, the two track cyclists, multiple medallists at the Olympic Games and the World Championships, won the Olympic tandem title on October 21, 1968, in Mexico.
The “para” disciplines do not suffer from any comparison with the “Olympics” in their spectacularity, their density of competitors or their physical performances. Thus, alongside the media champions, some disabled people assert themselves and become professional. This is the case of the blind tandem, in track cycling. It brings back into fashion, an event abandoned by the able-bodied, dominated by the legendary French duo of the 60s, “Trentin – Morelon”. The blind person sits behind an able-bodied person with an international level. However, a problem arises. How many champions would agree to put their career on hold, to devote themselves to supporting a disabled person? If the multiple French champion François Pervis has set an example, the question of the level proposed by certain guide opponents, less efficient, who came to the Paralympics by default, puts into perspective the fairness of the victory of the blind person. The tandem is propelled by the addition of two athletes!
The “guide” plays a leading role in almost all disciplines reserved for the blind. In the previous episode, we discussed the difficulty of disabled sports in recruiting athletes. Let’s add a second complicated mission, recruiting guides. However, the world of blind (or partially sighted) sport, one of the major categories of Paralympism, offers shows of rare quality (the physically, mentally or psychologically disabled constitute the two other main categories at the Games).
Equity also seems easier to establish. Of course, athletes do not all suffer from the same degree of blindness, but putting a blindfold over their eyes places them in the same power relationship. In a high jump, the jumper takes off, his guide carries the voice, he paces his stride, if necessary recenters him on the track, then warns him at the fateful moment of the push-off on the jump. The performance “takes you by the guts”!
What about the strategic silence during the blind football match where the players navigate using the bells tinkling inside the ball. The coach gives his advice; the match is captivating.
The physically handicapped category also offers sublime events. In athletics, wheelchair races are also being invited to international able-bodied competitions. In tennis, Roland Garros is beginning to include the wheelchair athletes tournament in its programme.
Why not also imagine at the basketball world championship, the joint holding of the wheelchair basketball competition, a great French tradition, in which the physical impact, the address, the placement strategy captivate the spectators?
As we go through this list, we come to understand an essential problem for the development and sporting appeal of the Paralympic Games: that of categories.
We were talking about Théo Curin, an endearing character, a fabulous consultant and public service presenter. Deprived of its four members, it cannot participate in the events due to a lack of competitors with this same characteristic. By definition, the disabled suffer from a reduction in their physical faculties and cannot compete with the able-bodied. However, there is only one type of valid person when multiple disabilities coexist. The difficulty lies in offering fair events, the winner of which will have performed to the maximum of his potential with equal opportunities with his opponents. Unfortunately their profiles inevitably differ, how can we convince ourselves that this is a fair match?
To compete on an equal footing, athletes are organized into various categories and classes. The classification is carried out by specialized medical and technical staff responsible for assessing the impact of the disability on the sport and on the athlete’s performance.
This system is similar to that of weight categories in combat sports.
At the Paralympic Games we are talking about functional classification which implies that “all athletes in the same category have a similar level of functional ability in terms of movement, coordination and balance. Under this system, athletes with different disabilities can compete together.”
Very quickly the spectator gets lost. The categories multiply. Within a high jump tournament for example, a single-leg amputee, equipped with a prosthesis, faces a double amputee whose double equipment allows for different propulsion.
Not all disciplines manage to offer the same quality of spectacle. Certain events benefit from a multitude of competitors, a standardization of physical effort, an identical quality of technical equipment, and aesthetics of the gesture. Some races achieve impressive times while others focus on the constraint of handicap. The category of mentally retarded must be accompanied by an informed comment intended for the public. When there is no sign of this famous handicap, we must then remember that the competitor can, for example, regularly lose his memory and that at any time during the event, his hopes of medals risk disappearing. Suspense reigns.
Such is life made of injustices which, at the meeting point of resilience, takes you on unsuspected paths that you would never have explored, without having made the effort to take an interest in them.
Trust the Paralympic athletes of Paris 2024. They will captivate you, differently than Marchand, Riner, and other Ferrand Prévot… But this meeting with them will mark you forever. Even if it means forgetting their complicated category and especially, their handicap.
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