Archer Guillaume Toucoullet got off to a good start at the Paralympic Games. On Thursday 29 August, during the qualifying round, which determines the group of sixteen qualified for the final, on Wednesday 4 September (15:27), the leader of the French archery team chained together all ten to break the Paralympic record for the open recurve bow (shot at 70 metres, standing, in a high seat or in a wheelchair), by 652 points.
When he competes, the 39-year-old from Bayonne is easy to spot. Not because his thick beard, bald head and tattooed arms make him look like a heavy metal drummer, a musical genre he likes, but because he shoots standing with a recurve bow while holding the string between his teeth. “In my categoryWe are just three archers shooting with our mouthsthe Basque specifies. Each one has developed his own technique. »
Guillaume Toucoullet shoots “at the mouth” thanks to a small leather tab attached to the string of his bow. This device allows him to grab the string, pull it and release it with precision. Controlled by the champion, the movement is fluid, but imposes enormous tension on the neck, jaws and teeth.
Guillaume Toucoullet speaks little of his accident and the resulting disability. Hit by a car while riding a motorbike in 2010, he escaped with a brachial plexus injury, which caused him to lose the use of his left arm. Even today, this inert arm is sometimes painful. To compensate, he must strengthen his neck and cervical muscles.
“The Demon of Competition”
“My problem is that I have no stability behind, I have no referenceexplains. I have to do everything with my neck, with the strength of my neck. I have to listen to my feelings, I constantly “scan” my body to know if my position is good. And I adjust based on what my coach tells me. The wind is my favorite thing, because it can change everything. »
Passionate about sport, having played pelota a lot in his youth, Guillaume Toucoullet returned to rowing just twelve months after his accident. He gave it his all, to the point of participating in the French team’s qualification in the discipline for the Paralympic Games in Rio in 2016, but was not selected. Disgusted, he slammed the door of the federation and began looking for another sport that could be practiced with only one arm.
In 2016, during an association forum in Anglet (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), near his home, he discovered archery. “Coming from rowing, I was one of those people who didn’t consider it a sport. I was an idiot.saysYou may not see it on TV, but it’s very intense. »
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