Whether it’s his brother, his friends who volunteer at Paris 2024, or even the managers of the café down the street from him who display a photo of their champion near the cash register, they all affectionately describe him with the same expression: “to Tornadoes”. At almost 39 years old, Nacer Zorgani is the kind of person you don’t forget, with his white cane. A bit hyperactive, he has embarked on a summer juggling multiple roles. That of athlete has led him to this Saturday, September 7, where he is competing in the -90 kg parajudo category (J2 category, visually impaired athletes).
Visually impaired due to progressive retinal degeneration that was diagnosed at the age of 17, the Marseillais is competing in his first Paralympic Games. And this, while he has only been playing judo for two and a half years. But he was not starting from scratch either. “It’s as if judo had completed twenty-five years of martial experience,” emphasizes the one who will be able to display his black belt, obtained in mid-June.
Karate, kickboxing, foot-fist boxing, taekwondo, aikido, ju-jitsu, sabre… He has tried almost everything, in addition to becoming in 2017 the first amateur licensee with a visual impairment in English boxing, his favorite discipline. “Sport saved my life. I started to visualize space better thanks to practicing all these martial arts. It really taught me how to lose my sight.”he explains. Which earned him the nickname “Zatoïchi”, in reference to a series of Japanese films which feature a blind samurai.
Nacer gets this jack-of-all-trades side from his father, who arrived from Algeria in 1969 to settle in the Belle-de-Mai district of Marseille. “Before, I was very shy, people often made fun of me. When I started to lose my sight, I could no longer read the board or see the bus number to go to school. I was ashamed to ask for help, I was terrified by the looks of others”explains the big guy, 102 kg at the weigh-in for 1.83 m. Seeing him greet everyone he meets with the same infectious joviality behind his round sunglasses, we can tell that time has done its job œWork.
“One day, a friend told me: ‘Nacer, either you go through life like a shooting star, or you stay in a black hole lost in space’. That’s been my motto ever since, even if it means burning your wings trying things.”
Nacer Zorganiat franceinfo: sport
After studying philosophy – “My father made fun of me: ‘You took the subject where there are the most books to read even though you have bad eyesight, you’re stupid!'” – The future Paralympian, eager for ever more knowledge, therefore followed up with a degree in languages and international trade, then completed two masters in the world of finance. He then extended his CV at Canal+, Thales and Vivendi, where he handled mergers and acquisitions head on, kumi-kata style.
“People don’t know what it’s like to be seen as a victim all the time. It makes you want to do everything to surpass yourself. That’s why I sometimes give the impression of being scattered. It nourishes me, it builds me,”admits the Algiers native, always on a motorcycle taxi between his appointments. It is in the context of this fight that he launched into stand-up in recent years with a pseudonym well known on the Parisian stages: L’Handicapable. A way to start too “therapy through humor”after a big period of depression in 2014.
“It allowed me to get back on my feet after some financial, emotional and mental struggles. I had lower back surgery for a sudden slipped disc, the doctor told me that I would never do any more sport because I could no longer move my leg.”he says. “Like friends and going out”Nacer has nevertheless put this activity on hold this year to devote himself 100% to his preparation for the Games.
An employee of Paris 2024, for whom he is a senior project manager in charge of volunteer engagement, he was also entrusted with the role of speaker to present the boxing matches of the Olympic Games. A real achievement for him, who started this hobby after hearing the American Michael Buffer host the world boxing championship between Anthony Joshua and Wladimir Klitschko in 2017. “Little by little, by imitating him to make my colleagues laugh, I was spotted and here I am”he sums up, without forgetting to mention his experience acquired during previous galas.
Although he was assisted by several volunteers to follow the evenings’ conductor, the showman memorized by heart the 235 fights that he had to introduce at the Olympics. In order to allow him to carry out his two missions, the organization even provided him with a space on the Villepinte and Roland-Garros sites, where the boxing events were taking place, for his judo training. “I knew these would be tough weeks, but I didn’t expect it to be so intense. I’m giving 200%, but it’s a good feeling of fatigue,”he assures us, while his phone plays his latest text messages on speakerphone in fast forward mode.
In his category, he admits, Nacer Zorgani is not one of the favourites, but the main thing is elsewhere. “Whatever happens, I will have no regrets because I have already won! I am one of those who will be able to say that they have done the Paris Games. With the pace of life that I have, it is unexpected to be there”he says. As he had just taken the kimono out of the closet for fun in 2022, he was invited by Djamel Bourras, the president of PSG Judo, to join the club after a dinner together.
“When I arrive at the dojo, there’s Romane Dicko, Amandine Buchard, Teddy Riner, Luka Mkheidze… They see a visually impaired person who hasn’t done judo for 1,000 years. It’s like a kart driver finding himself in Formula 1.”
Nacer Zorganito franceinfo: sport
Returning like a phoenix – according to a parallel he loves – after two serious injuries to his knee and collarbone during his pre-season at AS Bourg-la-Reine (Hauts-de-Seine), Nacer Zorgani is not obsessed with the gold medal. But if he were to get on the podium, he already knows how to celebrate: “I would like to announce myself as speaker, I have to.”
