“Tanguy!” Tangoy! Tangoy! » The song of the fans of the French rifleman Tanguy de La Forest is set to be the hit of the summer in Châteauroux, in Indre, where the shooting competitions for the Paralympic Games will take place until 5 September at the National Shooting Sports Centre (CNTS).
On Sunday 1st September, the Frenchman won gold in the 10-metre prone rifle shooting event (i.e. leaning on his elbows), two days after winning silver in the standing event (same weapon, same distance).
Often placed in the wrong place, the Breton, who had never made it onto the podium in five Paralympic Games, twice escaped fate on his sixth attempt. It had been twelve years, since Cédric Fèvre-Chevalier’s title in London in 2012, that a Frenchman had not climbed to the top of the podium in the sport of shooting.
Thanks to a calm final, in which he repeatedly scored the maximum points (10.9 points, corresponding to a shot right in the center of the goal), he ended up defeating the tenacious Brazilian Alexandre Augusto Galgani and the Japanese Mika Mizuta, the surprise guest of the final. “Even though I sometimes weaken at the end, today nothing could touch me, I was transcended” Tanguy de La Forest, on cloud nine, confided in the mixed zone after the medal ceremony.
Head of dual business
The Breton has come a long way since he nearly fell by the wayside in the morning, finishing only seventh in the standings (only the top eight qualify for the final). “It was played with only one advantage, He said. I had that little stroke of luck that I often lacked in the past. »
Tanguy de La Forest, 46, suffers from infantile spinal muscular atrophy, a progressive genetic disease close to myopathy. His muscles are so weak that he cannot walk or lift a bottle of water. He moves around in an electric chair, which he controls using a joystick. To shoot, he uses a spring-loaded support that allows him to carry his rifle.
His disability does not prevent him from running two businesses: the family company created by his father, which sells promotional items to companies, and a recruitment company specialising in disabled workers. Since 2017, he has also been the Secretary General of the French Paralympic and Sports Committee (CPSF).
His vocation as a sports shooter dates back to a rifle shooting competition he won when he was eight years old during a fair in Brittany. In the French team, the entrepreneur is a discreet leader who preaches more by example than by words. “He brings his calm and his charisma. He is a driving force for the group”says Gilles Muller, National Technical Director (DTN) of the French Shooting Federation (FFTir).
“Run with the best”
With these two medals, the federation has already achieved the goal it announced before the Games. A success that owes nothing to chance. Since 2017, the Paralympic delegation has been managed by the FFTir, and no longer by the federation of sports for the disabled, which allocates a budget of two million euros to it.
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“We have increased the number of personnel, improved detection, medical monitoring, technological approach… We are investing in both a parasniper and a valid marksman.” Mr Muller said: “Opened in 2018, accessible to people with reduced mobility and with a capacity of 600 spectators, the CNTS has proven to be a valuable tool for the federation.
One of the key factors has been the increase in the number of training sessions, courses and international competitions in which French shooters are invited to participate. “With the coaches we realised that if we wanted medals, we had to compete regularly against the best, and in particular against the South Koreans”continues the DTN.
It was during the Para shooting World Cup organised in Châteauroux in 2022, then in Lima in 2023, that the results began to take off. The French team is made up of nine members with very different profiles. Like Tanguy de La Forest, the leaders do not hesitate to share their experience with the youngest. An important aspect in a sport that matures late. Five French people present in Châteauroux are competing in their first Games.
Tanguy de La Forest will return to the Castelroussin shooting range on Wednesday 4 September for the 50-metre rifle shooting event.
