When Sophie Caverzan steps onto the taekwondo mat set up at the Grand Palais in Paris on Friday 30 August, excitement will envelop this amateur athlete, who had never practised this Korean martial art before 2021. The 29-year-old had certainly dreamed of making the Paralympic Games., but she “I didn’t know what sport”.
A basketball player for ten years and then a regional footballer, this woman from Toulouse had always played sports with healthy people, despite a congenital deformity in her left arm. “My forearm is missing, it feels weird with a finger on the tiphe explains with humor. I call him Bob. He’s my boyfriend. »
It was an announcement on Facebook for the new athlete screening programme, La Relève, launched in 2019 by the French Paralympic and Sports Committee, that served as a trigger. “I signed up online and my life changed completely. I had planned to have a classic life, buy a house, have a stable job… I saw it as an adventure and an opportunity to live my childhood dream of performing at a high level.”she says.
Instant love
In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, she did a remote motivational interview for the first time. She was sent to do a para taekwondo test at a small club located in Lagardelle-sur-Lèze, 30 kilometers south of Toulouse. Finally, the federal head of para taekwondo summons her to Paris for a week of training. “It was very hard physically. she remembers. I played football twice a week and that’s it. »
The love is immediate. “I loved the strategy game with the opponent.explains. You have to put the other person in the wind, like in chess. And at the same time it is a fight. » Upon his return, he clung to his new vocation, continued training at his club but did not enter any competitions for two years. It is difficult for this lifelong training assistant to give up everything without any financial guarantee: “I had to take some time off to train at Insep [Institut national du sport, de l’expertise et de la performance]. Economically it was impossible. »
Everything changes in 2023, when he obtains a professional integration agreement for high-level athletes. “I keep my salary and save for retirement. The National Sports Agency finances my stay on secondment”explains. In the first year, she splits her time 50/50 between her job and her sports career. Since March, she has focused full-time on Paralympic preparation.
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