Three, in all. Among the 237 members of the French delegation, badminton player Charles Noakes, weightlifter Axel Bourlon and table tennis player Thomas Bouvais are the only representatives of short athletes at the Paris 2024 Games. Contrary to what this figure might suggest, there have never been so many of them among the French team since the International Paralympic Committee recognized dwarfism in 2001.
“It’s great to have three athletes in Paris 2024. We don’t talk so much about small athletes”exclaims Patricia Marquis, who, in 2004 in Athens and in 2008 in Beijing, was the first small French athlete to take part in the Paralympic Games – the discus thrower was even captain of the French para athletics team in Beijing.
Axel Bourlon, for his part, appears more perplexed: “In Tokyo, there was only Thomas [Bouvais, médaillé de bronze en tennis de table] and me. There are three of us now. Aren’t short people too interested in sports? [pour être si peu représentés aux Jeux] ? »asks the 33-year-old athlete, reigning Paralympic vice-champion, who will be aiming for a podium in the – 54 kg category.
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“In the United States and the United Kingdom, there are more short athletes”adds the Franco-English Charles Noakes, who suffers from hypochondroplasia, a genetic skeletal disorder. “In France, we are more in the protection. We are not offered enough sport. Maybe people are afraid of mockery”he says.
Swimming to strengthen your body
As for him, Charles Noakes, 27, assures that he has always been “well integrated thanks to sport” : “My parents always gave me complete freedomhe confides. “Certainly, there were jokes and insults on the football pitches. It never bothered me, and I showed that, even though I was smaller, I could score with my head or dribble.”
He did not let his chance to compete in the Paralympic Games pass him by when, after registering with a badminton club in Saint-Herblain (Loire-Atlantique), its president informed him of the existence of a disabled sports section: “He told me there was now a category for short people.”
Axel Bourlon, for his part, started bench pressing in 2006, at the age of 17, with the aim of… learning to swim. “Because of my body shape, I had trouble getting my head out of the water to breathe. I didn’t have enough upper back muscles.”he explains.
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