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VIDEO – The journalist and sports commentator from France Télévisions was the guest of Léa Salamé’s talk show this Saturday, August 31. The opportunity for him to recall the reality of the daily life of para-athletes.
THE Paralympic Games began this Wednesday, August 28 in Paris and have already awarded six French Paralympic medalists and 23 French medals. In the same way as during the Olympic Games, France Télévisions deployed a large-scale operation to cover the event. With, among other things, the return of the daily talk show “What games!” hosted by Léa Salamé and Laurent Luyat. For the edition of this Saturday, August 31, the show received tennis player Michael Jeremiasz, para-athlete Dimitri Jozwicki but also sports journalist Matthieu Lartot .
The 44-year-old man holds a special place in these 2024 Paralympic Games. Indeed, following knee cancer discovered in 2023, the journalist was forced to have his right leg amputated. Since then, he has been wearing a prosthesis, which is particularly expensive. And if he had already wanted to raise awareness among the general public in the past, Matthieu Lartot took advantage of his presence on the set of the France 2 show to remind people of the cost of sports equipment for para-athletes.
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“Sports blades, the chairs you see with wheelchair rugby, wheelchair basketball, they’re expensive. They’re very expensive, and they’re not reimbursed by Social Security.”said the television man before adding: “If there are no partners, if there are no large companies that are mobilizing, you are closing access to people with disabilities.” An observation that is all the more deplorable as Matthieu Lartot reminds us: “There, we are creating vocations. There are kids who would dream of going to play wheelchair rugby. We need disability representatives who can welcome them. They need to have access to this type of equipment.”
And to continue: “You should know that Paralympic athletes, for example in wheelchair rugby, will have their wheelchair custom-made in the United States, it costs money. So they have the aids they need today. And there is still work to be done… But that’s all that needs to change in fact.” And if the presenter wanted to salute the action and the words of her colleague, the latter very quickly dismissed the congratulations by insisting on the leading role of Michael Jeremiasz.I humbly subscribe to everything that Micka has done over the years, which has been essential.”
