What is this world first that will take place during the 20 KM of Paris?

Among the 31,000 registrants who will set off on Sunday for the Vredestein 20 KM in Paris, all eyes will be on Valentin. Suffering from cerebral motor insufficiency, he must cross the line standing, in an exoskeleton developed by the Parisian company Wandercraft. An “eminently symbolic” gesture for his mother Anne Gautier.

Anne Gautier, you are president of the association Acting together against IMC (cerebral palsy). What are the benefits of sport for these pathologies?

You should know that children or adolescents or even people with motor disabilities have their bodies deform: our body is not made to sit or lie down all day, it is made to stand and walk . Children with motor disabilities suffer from spasticity, the muscle malfunctions, stiffens and shrinks while the bones continue to grow. It’s like a puppet with strings that are too short after a while, it becomes deformed and causes scoliosis, pelvic problems, dislocations. This adds to the handicap. In addition, they also have joint problems, tissue problems which are not made to remain static in a chair. And to remedy this we need to get people moving by doing adapted sports. With my association Agir ensemble contre l’IMC (cerebral motor insufficiency) created ten years ago, we offer, for example, adapted Tabata sessions set up by a French physiotherapist.

How did Valentin discover walking in an exoskeleton?

You should know that Valentin hasn’t been doing exoskeletons for a long time but since he was six or seven years old, we went to Poland to intensive rehabilitation centers to do a pediatric Lokomat (robotic lower limb exoskeleton intended for locomotor rehabilitation). There was only one rehabilitation center of this type in France compared to around fifteen in Poland. So Valentin has long been stimulated in a robotic way and much more stimulated than children who simply benefit from what we find in France.

This is a child who does not have bone deformity, scoliosis or pelvic dislocation problems and that is necessary to access these exoskeletons and be able to walk for an hour a week like he does. You have to know how to stand up straight because otherwise, these deformations hurt. The machine straightens you like no human could. Valentin not having these deformations, he was able to participate in this research protocol with Wandercraft. The results are there. It’s not magic either, he won’t walk alone because he has too much trunk imbalance. But with this autonomy he will walk like a superman, like Grendizer he will be able to walk with this machine. We hope that with the progress of research and Wondercraft that the machine will be able to keep him upright in the street for example.

Have you seen progress?

Yes and it is objective: each time he does a session the machine records the number of steps he has taken, at what power the machine maintains him or helps him. When he started, he barely took 600 steps in an hour and was kept at 50%. Today, he starts at 30% posture and completes 900 steps per hour.

What will happen on Sunday during the 20 KM of Paris?

Valentin is going to do his race in a joëlette (handisport wheelchair) with six people from Wandercraft who will push him, this will be completely a first for him. For the last 100 meters we will put the exoskeleton on him with a person behind him to ensure his safety if he ever tips over. He will walk these last 100 meters as he does during his weekly exoskeleton sessions. It is eminently symbolic, it is eminently important. I think I will experience it as if my son were at the Olympics or Paralympics. I hope he wants to do the best he can with lots of people around him cheering him on or being stunned to see him walking like that. I hope he will surpass himself.

The Vredestein 20 KM of Paris can be experienced live on France 3 Paris Ile-de-France, Sunday October 13 from 8:40 a.m.