The national blind football team held its first training session on October 17, 2016 at Charmettes in Neuchâtel. On the occasion of International White Cane Day, “La Matinale” welcomed Mathieu Chapuis, the founder of this sport in Switzerland, on Tuesday. It is a story of friendship which led him to set up a national team. “I did my secondary school studies with a blind student. I was confronted with this problem from the age of fifteen. This person was not necessarily very sporty, but she told me that she had access to sports through running or skiing, but not to team sports. » In 2012, Mathieu Chapuis “stumbled upon the final of the Paralympic Games between France and Brazil. »And more or less four years later, he founded the Swiss team. In blind football, two teams of five players compete against each other. Only the guards are sighted. Blind athletes rely on their hearing and sense of direction to get around. The ball, smaller and heavier than in traditional football, contains bells. There is no blind football championship in Switzerland. But with the popularity of the Paris Paralympics this year, Mathieu Chapuis hopes that this sport will develop. /sma
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