Paris 2024 Paralympic Games: “Following your dreams”, Hérault volleyball player Jean-Christophe Rambeau impatient to get started

Jean-Christophe Rambeau is eager to start competing. French sitting volleyball team

Victim of a motorcycle accident seven years ago, the Saint-Justois is preparing to participate in the Paralympic sitting volleyball tournament with the French team that begins against Kazakhstan this Thursday, August 29 (8 p.m.). The dream of a lifetime.

We imagine that you are eager to start your first Paralympic Games!

Yes and what's more at home, it's going to be extraordinary. But I remain undecided. I am impatient to be able to realize a childhood dream, but also to enjoy above all the moments of enthusiasm and pleasure that precede the games. It will pass very quickly, I will be so focused on the matches that I will not have time to appreciate them.

Can you tell us about your sporting career, your beginnings in Paralympic sport and what pushed you to choose this discipline in particular ?

I was already a sports enthusiast. After my accident (read elsewhere), I gradually got back into running, thanks to funding for a running blade from my employer. I happened to come across a detection by the French Paralympic and Sports Committee, which was organizing a succession throughout France to find potential athletes with a view to participating in the Games. Several federations were interested in my profile, including sitting volleyball. I didn't know it at all, I was immediately hooked, it's a very physical sport, very fast, very explosive, which requires a lot of technique and power. It is the team sport par excellence, each player needs his teammates.

What are the biggest challenges you have had to overcome?

Without hesitation, the structures. In 2019, there was nothing in sitting volleyball in the region. So we had to start from scratch, starting by finding a club, opening the section, finding and training the coaches and then the players. I approached different clubs and it was Villeveyrac, sensitive to the project, who specially opened a section, where I did my training with Delphine Denimal (Editor's note: former sitting volleyball player), who took me under her wing. Through training, the doors of the French team opened in August 2019.

The best would be to be able to set up a section in the Lunel region and represent it at the French championship.

Bio Express

Born December 22, 1981 in Lyon (42 years old).

Victim of a motorcycle accident seven years ago, trans-tibial amputee of the right leg.

Nickname: Rambeaucop.

In the French sitting volleyball team since 2021.

Participated in the European Championship in 2022 (7th).

Lives in Saint-Just (34) since 2017 after spending five years in Montpellier.

Always wanted to surpass himself and quickly realized that the only limits were in the head.

What motivates you every day ?

Sport is part of my life and helps me feel good. After my accident, I immediately wanted to get back into it. Wearing the colours of the French team is a great honour and an immeasurable motivation. Just thinking that I'm going to hear La Marseillaise sung by 6,000 people motivates me like never before. It's the competition that everyone is waiting for, that everyone dreams of doing.

How did you prepare and what are your goals ?

We have had several training courses and tournaments since the beginning of the summer, in France and in Europe, where we met several teams participating in these Games. The Federation allowed us to have two full weeks of preparation at the Creps in Vichy, with a lot of training and video sessions of our future opponents, to optimize the automatisms. Afterwards, we are aware of being the Little Thumbs of the discipline and that we are going to tackle colossi, with Kazakhstan, Egypt and Bosnia, who have great champions. They are all professionals and we are only amateurs. Unlike them, our championship is only seven years old. We have to be realistic, it's often the best who wins, but we're going there to give it our all, to defend the colours of our country and prove to the whole world that we're here, up to the challenge.

Variante du volley-ball traditionnel, le volleyball assis est tout aussi intense !
Pour le voir de vos propres yeux, rendez-vous à L’Arena Paris Nord du 29 août au 7 septembre 2024 🏐

PS : n’oubliez pas l’ouverture de la billetterie des Jeux Paralympiques le 9 octobre 😉 pic.twitter.com/yyKmWRglMr

— Paris 2024 (@Paris2024) September 6, 2023

What advice would you give to a young athlete with a disability who dreams of taking part in the Paralympic Games ?

The best advice I can give him is to come and play sitting volleyball and he will be won over (laughs). Seriously, you have to follow your dreams and give yourself the means to accomplish them. I had a lot of struggles and concessions to make to get there, it wasn't easy. You have to fight and never give up. I have a saying with my association (Editor's note: Tiik Taak Boom), which I created with a member of the French team, which says: “Live without limits.” »

What message do you want to convey to the public through your participation in the Games ?

I have two motivations for these Games. To introduce sitting volleyball to the French and especially to young and old people in the region with disabilities, so that they come and discover this sport. Then to send a positive image of disability and particularly disability sport to French society, so that it changes its view of these people.

What is your biggest dream as an athlete ?

I will realize it in a few days by participating in the games. It's really a childhood dream.

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