She will discover the unique arena of the Grand Palais and the atmosphere of the Games for the first time. At 24, fencer Clémence Delavoipière is leaving on Tuesday, September 3, to discover a competition she has never competed in and the Frenchwoman has an appetite. She is thus entered in the three weapons (foil, épée, sabre) in category A (disability affecting at least one lower limb) individually, and in the foil and épée teams.
A major event for the woman who found herself practicing the discipline almost by chance and who now embodies the next generation of French women’s wheelchair fencing. His teenage love is not blades, but rather the athletics track.
Born without her right foot, amputated very early below the knee, she runs with a prosthesis. But when she arrived in Ile-de-France for her studies, in 2018, she had difficulty finding a structure to train. “In the club, I was the only amputee, it wasn’t great. It’s sometimes complicated to find a good disabled sports club”she confided to the Eure Mail end of December 2022.
While having her prosthesis replaced, she heard about wheelchair fencing and quickly fell under its spell. “In para-fencing, everything is played out in the abs and arms. You need flexibility, speed, it’s intense.”she assured, still to the local newspaper. “She has always been athletic, so she has an explosiveness that is an asset for assaults. In wheelchair fencing, it is a real plus”assures Delphine Valet, former fencer and consultant for France Télévisions.
Following her first sword strokes in 2021, Clémence Delavoipière quickly got noticed, as during the U23 world championships in Brazil in 2022. For her first major international competition, she won three medals (gold in épée, silver in sabre, bronze in foil).
It is “a UFO came from nowhere”marvels Sébastien Barrois, fencing master and trainer at the Sporting Club Levallois, in Hauts-de-Seine, also present in the staff of the French team. “Clémence hadn’t even started on the national circuits two years ago. Today she is in the world top 16”he explains in a behind-the-scenes video of the preparation shared on June 11 on the club’s Facebook account. A dazzling progression that places her, for her first Games, among the attractions of the wheelchair fencing tournament, where the Bleues are aiming for medals both individually and as teams.
With her teammate Brianna Vidé, a few months older, she embodies the new generation of French women’s wheelchair fencing, particularly in the épée team, which won a silver medal at the last European Championships in March. “For the old ones, the goal is for the young ones to come and take over and push them out”laughs Cécile Demaude, who at 52 is experiencing her last Paralympic Games.
“There is a renewal, like after each Paralympic. But here, it is true that there is a great team of young people who are arriving, who fought to try to qualify and who are there”says Delphine Valet. A beautiful symbol for Clémence Delavoipière, who was just starting fencing when the last Games were held, and who is now waiting to experience her first Paralympic thrill under the glass roof of the Grand Palais.
