lThe problem with “enchanted parentheses” is that they end up closing. Never before has the issue of disability, largely hidden in France, been so strongly exposed as during the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. For twelve days, the country was thrilled by the fantastic spectacle of these athletes like no other on the five continents, competing with strength, skill, strategic sense and courage.
In a society where disability is too often still synonymous with “impairment,” it was for once associated with collective national celebrations and extraordinary performances. Alexis Hanquinquant, Double Paralympic triathlon gold medallist and flag bearer of the French delegation, was not the only one to salute “a general awareness” and believe that these Games would allow “a much stronger inclusion”.
Yet, a week after the closing ceremony, who can swear that outside of sporting circles “nothing will ever be the same” for the twelve million disabled people living in France? It has been said and repeated that the Paralympic Games will be “change your perspective” on disability, countering the miserabilism, paternalism and clumsiness that still dominate.
This would be nothing, even if we are light years away from the “wooden leg race” organised as a fairground exhibition in Nogent-sur-Marne in 1895, or even from the first post-war competitions between “paralysed” or mutilated people, very marked by their medical origin, described by historians Sylvain Ferez and Anne Marcellini in “Other sport or another sport? Genesis and rise of Paralympism”, an article published by The life of ideas..
“We are not superheroes”
But by what miracle does this “change of perspective” occur, which also seems to reflect the success of Artus’ film? Something extraWould it improve the situation of disabled people? “Assuming that their status depends solely on the opinion of sane people is a bit like saying that the status of women depends primarily on the opinion of men! Imagine the scandal! says sociologist and political scientist Pierre-Yves Baudot, co-author of Political cause of disability (2021, University Presses of France). The important thing is not the opinion that healthy people have of themselves, but the opinion that disabled people have of themselves, which is generally negative because it makes it difficult for them to travel, study, access employment and housing.
You have 56.45% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
