Paralympic Games: Guilhem Laget, the rising star of Gard armchair tennis

À seulement 25 ans, Guilhem a déjà participé à trois Coupe du monde avec l’équipe de France. DR

Originaire de Comps, le jeune athlète figure parmi les meilleurs joueurs de tennis fauteuil au monde.

Guilhem Laget's great sporting career continues. The wheelchair tennis champion from Comps will participate in the World Cup in Antalya, Turkey, which will take place from May 7 to 12. This is therefore the fourth consecutive World Cup in which he will participate with the French team.

From the round ball to the yellow ball

Since his debut in wheelchair tennis at the age of 18, his ranking has continued to progress. As a child, Guilhem was passionate about football. At the age of 8, a health problem caused him to partially lose the use of his leg, but combative and determined, he continued playing football as a goalkeeper at Beaucaire-Tarascon. At the age of 16, he switched to swimming where he obtained honorable results in disabled sports. Two years later, he moved towards wheelchair tennis where he found his true calling.

His undeniable talent, his strength of character and his tireless work led him to progress quite quickly and his excellent results followed. Guilhem was twice French champion, bronze medalist at the team World Cup with the French team. During international tournaments, he obtained around fifteen titles in singles and around thirty in doubles. His best ranking was French number 2 and 14th in the world rankings.

The Paris Paralympic Games in sight

Since September, after a small drop in form due to a stress fracture in his wrist last summer, Guilhem has returned to full form and has never played as well as he does now. He has achieved many good results in renowned competitions. Thus, he participated in important tournaments in France but also in Kenya, Morocco, Barcelona, ​​Australia and Japan. Today, aged 25, the courageous tennis player is ranked number 3 in France and 23rd in the world.

Still licensed at the Grau-du-Roi club where he works with his coaches, he is also part of Pôle France. Thus, he regularly goes to Paris for weeks of high-level training at the National Training Center with, since the start of the year, Yannick Noah as coach of the National Training Center. Paralympic team. In addition to his participation in the World Cup, Guilhem hopes to participate in the Roland-Garros tournament. July 15 will also be a determining date because if he stays, at that time, as well ranked, or even better, he will participate in the Paralympic Games in Paris.

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