An Olympic title sometimes means nothing. To encourage Aurélie Aubert to play boccia, Marie-Pierre Leblanc, head of performance for the French team, offered the young girl some chocolate. “to motivate her”Almost fifteen years later, the athlete won the first French Paralympic medal in the history of this discipline, which is close to pétanque and curling. At 27 years old, the player from Dreux, in Eure-et-Loir, beat Singaporean Jeralyn Tan Yee Ting (5-4) in the final on Monday 2 September.
In a partially full Paris Sud Arena, the audience celebrated their victory by improvising a cappella Marseillaise before chanting the name of the new Paralympic champion at length. “I am very happy. This title represents many years of work., – declared Aurélie Aubert, with a tricolor flag draped over her shoulders. This sport is my passion: I eat petanque, I sleep petanque. »
This discipline, which has no equivalent among able-bodied people, is played by wheelchair athletes. Each player has six red or blue balls at the start of each round. The aim is to roll them as close as possible to a white ball called a “jack”, the equivalent of the jack in pétanque. Each ball of the same colour placed closest to the jack scores one point. The winner is the one with the most points after four rounds.
a big scare
Aurélie Aubert, who plays in BC1, a category in which players suffer from cerebral palsy and a severe disability in all four limbs, was not the favourite. Ranked sixteenth in the world, the Frenchwoman lost heavily (6-1) to the Singaporean (world number 2) during the group stage. She then reached the final thanks to very close victories in the quarter-finals and semi-finals.
Aurélie Aubert started her match well, winning 5-0 after the first two rounds. She then lost her concentration. Although the gold medal seemed to be won, the athlete was in for a big scare. “I made a mistake, the Frenchwoman acknowledged. I thought my opponent had run out of balls, even though he had one left. When I saw the referee’s face, I said to myself, there’s a problem. » “This lack of clarity, probably due to the stress surrounding this final, could have cost him dearly”estimates Samuel Pacheco, coach of the French national team.
Introduced at the 1984 Paralympic Games, organised jointly in New York and Stoke Mandeville (England), boccia is practised by 3,600 people in France, including 700 in competitions. Aurélie Aubert, who suffered from cerebral palsy due to lack of oxygen at birth, started playing at the age of 13 after meeting Claudine Llop, a nurse at her centre. The latter is now her playing assistant and accompanies her during the Paralympic tournament. “My role is to face the fieldexplains. I have no right to speak to or influence Aurélie, but I can steer her chair according to her instructions. During the launch, I also act as a counterweight to the chair, because it gains momentum… Every day, Aurélie gives me everything I can give her. »
You have 38.15% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
