When the police prepare the Nîmes handball players. The USAM met on Monday November 25, 2024 in an abandoned psychiatric hospital**, where the Gard gendarmerie serves as training camps. The gendarmes set up several ambushes for the players as if to test their ability to resist stress.
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A former psychiatric hospital transformed into a war zone
Barely out of their car, in front of a former psychiatric hospital located around thirty kilometers from Nîmes, the USAM players have a special welcoming committee. Flying over by a helicopter, the old hospital is transformed into a war zone. The police shoot and scream as if to frighten the players. Hugo is part of the team: “[Cet exercice] will teach me to visualize better and above all have more composure in different situations.” The players progress through sinister corridors, the tiles are broken, the walls are dilapidated, police appear everywhere. David Tebib, the president of USAM, looks at them: “For me the objective is to see how they manage to overcome such ordeals, for some I appreciate their leadership and their ability to face fear.”
Around thirty gendarmes engaged
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Players must also go down to the bottom of the cellar, in the dark, to find some clues. It was Lieutenant-Colonel Éric Paincet, second in command of the Gard departmental gendarmerie group, who imagined this operation: “This is an exercise that required a lot of preparation. A lot of resources have been committed, in total eighteen instructors are gathered here on intervention. In total, around thirty gendarmes. In the end, everyone is happy because the police and the athletes share a common value: commitment.“
Antoine Lifaut
France
