According to French skier Marie Bochet, the organization of the Paralympic Games allowed the city of Paris to “initiate a transition” towards the inclusion of people with disabilities. These games will also be a “detonator” to talk about disability which “remains taboo in society”, according to her.
Published on: 05/20/2024 – 1:09 p.m.
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The organization of the Paralympic Games has enabled Paris to “initiate a transition” towards the inclusion of people with disabilities in society, multi-medal winning and recently retired French skier Marie Bochet assured AFP on Monday May 20.
100 days before the opening of the Games (August 28-September 8) she warns that “everything will not be ready because in seven years (since their attribution) we are not going to transform Paris” in terms of accessibility in transport in common or infrastructure.
“The Olympics will be important in terms of legacy, we have planted seeds in the heads of political leaders, institutions, societies. There are things that will evolve, we have initiated this transition” towards more inclusion of people with disabilities, said the 30-year-old skier, eight-time Paralympic gold medalist (2014 and 2018) and winner of more than 100 World Cup races.
The Paralympic Games will also be a “detonator” for talking about disability which “remains taboo in society”, believes the Savoyard. “We are going to see a fairly wide range of athletes with multiple disabilities in a context of performances that have nothing to envy of Olympic performances.”
“We must not be afraid of disability, we must encounter difference and understand it better to better appreciate it,” she assures, emphasizing that Paralympic athletes demonstrate a strength “of adaptation and creativity to overcome their differences.
“A lot of work to do” on ticketing
Born with agenesis (a malformation of her left forearm), Marie Bochet talks about her nephews and nieces who have been confronted with her disability since they were very young: “for them I have a different arm but it’s normal, they have always seen me do everything.”
The organizers still have “a lot of work to do” on ticketing, she admits. If 2.8 million tickets were put on sale last October, around 900,000 have so far been sold or allocated.
Now retired, Beaufortaine is committed as co-president of the athletes’ commission of the French Paralympic and Sports Committee (CPSF) to developing inclusive sports clubs for young people with disabilities. “Able-bodied” clubs do not necessarily have all the cards in hand”, like coaches trained in para sports, while “it brings a lot to the able-bodied community to have people with disabilities in their club”, she says.
With AFP
