Before shining at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games, Margot Boulet has a few short lives behind her: a biology course, then swimming practiced at a high level. She was then 24 years old when she decided to join the GIGN, the elite unit of the gendarmerie. In 2016, she started the entrance test. It takes place over a year, in two stages. Physical tests welcome the candidates in March. Push-ups, pull-ups, running in trellises… They come to tire out the future recruits for the rest of the competition.
In the fall, the last two-week stage is where candidates give up the most. “It’s not physical, but it’s much harder than the first part,” says the former gendarme. The “pre-stage” is a test of resilience, mainly mental. Out of 300 candidates, only 17 passed both tests and among them, Margot Boulet is the only woman.
A decisive accident
The test finally passed, Margot Boulet is assigned to follow a one-year training. From internship to internship, she tries different disciplines like in March 2017, where she discovers parachuting. The tragedy happened on landing. A colleague flies below her, which creates a depression and causes her sail to blow.
Without a parachute, Margot Boulet fell more than 12 meters and broke her first lumbar vertebra. “At that moment I was scared, I was 26 years old and I might be paraplegic. Do I want to have this life?” she confided. Over the course of two years, she underwent seven operations and received psychiatric care. Margot then found herself suffering from a slight disability, but one that no longer allowed her to do her job.
It was then that she discovered para-rowing by chance. A manager from the French Rowing Federation was passing by the club she was going to. During a discussion about Margot with her parents, he mentioned para-rowing for the first time. Curious, the future athlete tried it and fell in love with the sport. Her meteoric rise took her to the Tokyo Olympics and, of course, to Paris, where she won bronze both times.
To learn more about Margot’s journey, or to discover other inspiring journeys, join us every Thursday in “Focus”, presented by Lucie Franco, on 20 Minutes TV and in replay on 20minutes.tv.
