Who are the Gard athletes qualified for the Paralympics ?

Flora Vautier en plein match avec les couleurs de la France DR

Guilhem Laget sous le maillot de l’équipe de France FFT

Avec le début des Jeux Paralympiques arrivant à grand pas, dont la cérémonie d’ouverture est ce 28 août au soir, deux athlètes gardois défendront les couleurs tricolores à Paris.

On the evening of August 28, the 2024 Paralympic Games will kick off in the heart of the Parisian capital. Orchestrated by its artistic director Thomas Jolly, more than 50,000 spectators are expected for this opening ceremony, which will be held outside a stadium for the first time in its history. With nearly 3 hours of shows and 5 staged scenes, the 168 delegations will parade down the Avenue des Champs-Élysées until the finale on Place de la Concorde. Led by its two flag bearers Alexis Hanquinquant (para-triathlon) and Nantenin Keita (para-athletics), the French delegation will begin these 12 days of competition with 237 athletes. Among them, two Gard athletes will be present in the procession: Flora Vautier and Guilhem Laget.

The intrepid table tennis player Flora Vautier

She started playing table tennis at the age of 13, after having to stop gymnastics following a car accident in 2015, Flora Vautier will participate in her very first Games at just 19 years old. A student at the University of Nîmes in Staps, the table tennis player quickly rose through the ranks to win three medals, including an international title in 2022. Even more impressive, the current French number 1 and world number 12, has dominated the national level for 2 years, being twice triple French champion, in singles, women's doubles and mixed. For his first Games, his goal is clear: coming back with a medal is almost mandatory.

Wheelchair tennis expert Guilhem Laget

Originally from Comps and currently licensed with Grau-du-Roi, French tennis player Guilhem Laget is a great chance for a French medal. A bit of a jack-of-all-trades in his childhood, switching from football to swimming to focus on tennis at 18, the Gardois is currently ranked 25th in the world in singles and 22nd in the world in men's doubles. Now aged 26, he has accumulated 31 major championship victories in all categories since the start of his career. With an average of 63% victory in 205 matches, Guilhem Laget intends to use all his experience during his games.