The “debrief” of Charles-Antoine Kouakou’s Paralympic final with his coach Vincent Clarico will be important to understand the reasons for his failure. On the purple track of the Stade de France (Seine-Saint-Denis), Tuesday, September 3, the man who had won gold in Tokyo in 2021 finished eighth and dead last in the 400m, T20 category (intended for the intellectually disabled) in 49.04 seconds, far from his personal best (47.32 seconds).
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A few hours before the deadline, Vincent Clarico confided to the Monde that when he missed his race, his protégé, who suffers from a speech disorder, had difficulty expressing the reasons for his poor performance. “He just says he’s not well.” And this is exactly the speech that the person concerned gave in the mixed zone: “I wasn’t feeling well tonight. I was lacking a bit of energy for this final stretch. It doesn’t matter, I’ll make up for it in four years in Los Angeles.”
Should we look for the key to this disappointment in the ultra-fast start of the French sprinter? “The final started very quickly, Charles-Antoine even moresays Marie-Paule Fernez, national technical director (DTN) of the French Federation of Adapted Sport (FFSA). It was won with an unusual time of 48 seconds. [48 s 09 pour le Colombien Jhon Obando Asprilla]. It’s a disappointment because it was within his reach to do something great again.” Like three years ago, when he became the first FFSA athlete to win a title at the Paralympic Games, in an empty arena due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Before taking his place in the starting blocks on Tuesday, the 26-year-old Frenchman was the embodiment of relaxation, all smiles, playing with the public. His handicap has one virtue: that of making him impervious to the pressure of major events. Did the enthusiastic support of the Dionysian spectators make him imprudent in his race management?
“We must be vigilant about any change in habits”
Since the beginning of their collaboration in 2018, former hurdler Vincent Clarico has been fully invested behind his athlete. Almost a priesthood. “It’s a constant concentration. You have to be vigilant for any change in habits, a different look, signs of fatigue.says the coach. The complexity lies in its limited vocabulary and its imprecision or inability to take initiative.”
Support for adapted athletes goes beyond that of an able-bodied athlete or the majority of disabled athletes. “Once the training is over, they have their intellectual integrity, their autonomyexplains the coach. For us, it’s much stronger. It requires a daily presence. He calls me if he has a flat tire in his car, for the slightest thing.”
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