Paralympic Games: “There is already a before and after Paris 2024”, assures Marie-Amélie Le Fur

Marie-Amélie Le Fur est impatiente de retrouver les Jeux Paralympiques. MAXPPP – ANDRE PAIN

Three days before the opening ceremony, the president of the French Paralympic and Sports Committee wants to believe in a paradigm shift in French society with regard to disability.

What state of mind are you in three days before the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games (August 28) ?

There is a form of enthusiasm and impatience. We have all experienced an absolutely fabulous Olympic fortnight. We were really rocked by this emotion of the Games and now we want to discover the Paralympic history.

Which begins with the torch relay…

She arrives via Calais this Sunday morning and once again the Paralympic fervor, the fervor of the Games will light up our territories (read elsewhere).

Bio express

Born on September 26, 1988, in Vendôme (35 years old).
Victim of a scooter accident in 2004, she had her left leg amputated.
Discipline: Athletics (long jump, 100 m, 200 m, 400 m).
Palmarès: nine Paralympic medals including three gold in four participations (Beijing 2008, London 2012, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2021).
She also has four world titles and three European titles, holder of the world record for the long jump (6.14 m in 2021) and the 400 m (59”27 in 2016).
President of the French Paralympic and Sports Committee since 2018.

There is also the impatience of the athletes.

They are ready and we want to see them compete because we have been thinking, reflecting, designing these Games for them for years now, so that it is also an absolutely extraordinary experience. The level of preparation has never been better for Paralympic athletes on an international scale but also on a French scale. And so it is for us, future spectators, the promise of very beautiful performances.

Tony Estanguet, the boss of Cojop promised a breathtaking show on Wednesday on the Place de la Concorde. How to do better than July 26 and the opening of the Olympic Games?

It is not the ambition of the Paralympic Games to be in the comparison with the Olympic Games, to do more or better. In fact, from the beginning, we know that it is the same passion, the same desire, the same vision but with Games that are unique, with Games that are different. We will find exactly the same tone but these ceremonies will not be comparable. The parade of Paralympic athletes will be a magic in itself, the first meeting of the French public with its Paralympic athletes, at the bottom of the Champs-Élysées. There will also be a much more militant issue in favor of people with disabilities. The goal will also be, and Tony said this again recently, to counteract all the prejudices that we may have about disability, about the skills and abilities of people with disabilities.

“Tony Estanguet was the outstanding, extraordinary leader of this project”

Did you think that France would be able to organize such an event??

Having been involved very early in this bid for the Paris 2024 Games, in 2015, I who had experienced London (2012), felt that the tone was right. The tone was new because it was really the sports movement that was there, that was at the heart of the bid and that wanted to make these Games a success for French sport, for international sport, while highlighting what Paris, what France had best. And when you know the love of sport of the French, when you know the quality of our cultural heritage, when you look at the organizational quality that we have, well when you finally put all that together, yes, you are aware that you have the right ingredients to succeed.
But behind it, you needed the right conductor. Tony (Estanguet) was the outstanding, extraordinary leader of this project. He knew how to surround himself with the right people to have the right vision, and finally to put all this French quality to good use in this Olympic and Paralympic Games project.
Regarding the Paralympic Games, we have always had his listening and kindness. And above all, he understood that we were not there to ask for empathy from people. We were there to take them on an extraordinary level of performance.

Will there be a before and after Paris 2024 for the “paras”   ?

There is already a before and after. In fact, we can already feel the palpable effects of the legacy of the Games. We have been building this legacy for years now, in favor of the sporting practice of people with disabilities in particular. It has been considerably boosted and made visible thanks to the Games. It is no coincidence that the French delegation includes 237 athletes, 82 women, and that France is present in the 22 sports of the Paralympic program. This is the result of a change in the sports movement. There is still a lot of work to do, actions to be taken at the national level and in the territories. But there has been a considerable acceleration of resources, of the ambition carried by the various stakeholders, both in the field of high performance, which allows us to support our athletes much more qualitatively and therefore to have this ambition of the top 8 nations. But there have also been considerable resources and projects carried out in favor of opening up sport to all people with disabilities. 1,500 clubs have been trained since December 2022, in all territories, in all sports practices, to welcome people with disabilities. The objective is to reach 3,000 inclusive clubs by the end of the 2024-2025 season.
The way we look at disability has also changed. Today, we see people with disabilities through the prism of their skills and abilities, and not in relation to their disability situation or what they have lost.

“The London Games (2012) changed my life, I experienced extraordinary emotions”

Accessibility?

Whether in transport, real estate, sports or urban construction, it has evolved a lot. Thinking about the needs of people with disabilities is not something superfluous. It is necessary because they represent more than 10% of the world's population, more than 10 million people in France. And it is also important to understand and materialize their needs so that tomorrow, all our mobility services, our city is also adapted to this autonomy. We are far from being in an ideal situation, but there has been considerable progress that we must capitalize on to maintain this momentum.

The outlook is changing but tensions persist. A Paralympic athlete asked Teddy Riner this week to stop talking about the subject because he would not be doing the “paras” any service…

It's complicated for some people to take a position. It's not easy and that's why we also have to pay attention to the reaction we get when famous Olympic athletes take a position, when you have Artus who deals with disability with humor. We also have to be able to accept it. And yes, maybe Sofiane (Mehiaoui) felt that Teddy and Marie-Jo (Pérec) spoke awkwardly about the Paralympic Games. But they've already spoken about it. In their own words, with their own vision. It's up to us to accompany them, to tell them things, but I already find it totally new to have an Olympic delegation that is interested in the Paralympic Games, that feels involved, that happens to have a connection with them. That's more what I want to tell in this story. And at some point, we're going to say to ourselves that these Olympic athletes are telling the Paralympic performance as they experienced it. And if they experienced it like that, maybe other French people will experience it in the same way. I didn't find that there was anything degrading.

France aims for the Top 8, 20 gold medals. Who will be the Marchands of the Paralympic team?

We can hope for medals in 20 of the 22 sports on the program. That's a certainty. Afterwards, mathematically, we always have sports that are more providers than others.
That's normal, it's the mechanics of the events, it's also the mechanics of multiple starts for some athletes. We will be particularly monitoring para-swimming and para-cycling. I think that our team sports will also be there.
And I really want to see our wheelchair rugby team go all the way because they have been working for this for years, because they have never been so ready.

When you see all this excitement, are you a little jealous of the athletes selected for Paris 2024?

No, there is no jealousy at all. It is together that we build the influence of the Paralympic movement. We are each in our place. And I am simply happy for them. I was lucky enough to experience the London Games. These Games have changed my life. Because I have experienced extraordinary emotions thanks to the public.
I really want our entire young generation, all these 237 athletes who work hard every day to give their best on D-Day, to be able to feel these absolutely extraordinary emotions and fully enjoy this adventure of the Games at home.

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