“It pulls them up”: at the nursing home, seniors take up saber training with a world medalist

“I’m rubbish. » “Oh no, I don’t want to hear that. ” Smile. Then a flexible gesture to bend down and pick up the ball. A new smile. “Come on, let’s start again!” » Marie-Pierrette does so, and passes the inflatable ball, two black plastic sabers in her hands, to her neighbor in the chair. Margaux Rifkiss leads the maneuver, continuing her encouragement towards another woman. Among the wheelchairs, the 27-year-old young woman is by far the youngest in the room. From very far away, even.

Quite logical basically. Margaux Rifkiss is a fencer, European champion and world silver medalist in saber teams. And the one who aims to compete in the 2024 Paris Olympics spends her Wednesday afternoons, the day off from training at Insep, in this nursing home in Montreuil (Seine-Saint-Denis). To give fencing lessons to elderly people in the medical facility and those in the neighboring residence inhabited by seniors.