Included in the list of 86 athletes supported by the Southern Region, the para-badminton player Guillaume Charlot admits to having been surprised to be included …
“To begin with, it was a surprise to me. I absolutely did not expect it and it is really very good for me. I have been in trouble for a year, so it gives me a big bowl of oxygen and a lot of not insignificant support. I don’t know if, thanks to that, it unlocked other things, but since this letter, everything is connected. I had no support from my League at the start, the Federation I do not even talk about. For the record, last November, I was third in my first European Championships. The Federation therefore integrates me into the France team in January with promises. A year later, nothing has been done, nothing has been put in place, no help and no support from the Federation. Since then, Fabien Jacob, the manager of the PACA badminton league, has managed to get me to finalize the file with the Region, which already knew me. We were expecting a return from the Federation, it did nothing so Fabien took care of it. I found out in August that I was on the Southern Region list. I was then contacted to join the Pole which is in Hyères as an outside person, according to my professional availability. The training sessions at the Pole are during the day and professionally, that does not make my employer laugh. There, we are in the process of seeing which niche I can use and how I can arrange things with my employer. It’s already better than nothing, because for a year, I had no training and no structure to train. I spent a year in the dark. “
A passion that costs dearly
“It’s a fortune. I’ll give you an idea: Canada, 1,800 euros excluding plane tickets, Turkey, 800 euros excluding plane tickets (1,200 euros with tickets). The Worlds were in Switzerland, so I drove there to avoid costs. Regarding the hotel, I did not take that of the organizers because it is on average 4 stars. Staying there for a week, it stings! So, I slept at the campsite in France. That doesn’t bother me, because I have a truck converted into a motorhome and that has allowed me to considerably reduce the budget. The registration fee for the Worlds was $ 250, Canada was $ 110, Turkey $ 100. On average, it is between 1,000 and 1,500 euros for a hotel. The financial assistance from the Region will allow me to do two or three additional tournaments, which I had not initially planned on the calendar. “
The road to Tokyo 2020
“In badminton, qualifying is so difficult. There are 94 quotas, all handicaps combined. There are 6 categories, men and women, so bring the 94 places to parity and then according to the categories, that makes tables of five to eight people at most! With only one athlete per country. Currently, I am French number 2, so I do not enter the qualification. Theoretically, if a French person has to go to Tokyo, it is Méril Loquette, the French number 1 in my category, who will make the trip. Except injury or big misstep on his part, which is unlikely to happen. It’s ultra complicated to qualify. Not all men’s, women’s, doubles and mixed tables are represented in all categories. In my category, the SU5 (upper limbs), we only have singles and possibly mixed doubles, but we don’t have a French player who can play it. So I only have the simple, it’s a real obstacle course. Places are allocated according to the number of beds. They allocated 94 beds for para-badminton. At the World Championships in August, we were in a table of 32, it was already more “honorable”, and in doubles we had a table of 16. But at the Olympics, the quotas are made in relation to the number of allocated beds. “
Paris 2024
“Paris 2024 is already in my head. I was not structured for Tokyo and it’s complicated to claim to go to the Games by being self-taught. The League is starting to support me, with the help of the Region. In addition, the tables should be expanded for Paris 2024. In theory, it would be much less complicated for me to access Paris 2024 compared to Tokyo. Me, it’s only been a year since I arrived in international para-badminton, I’m brand new to the circuit. In Paris, I will be 34 years old. “
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Photo credit: BadmintonPhoto
