They are both there, huddled together to face the phone that is used for the video call: Justine Bève, 27, and her father Luc, 62, who is also her assistant almost every moment during the competitions. The day before, Wednesday, September 4, the athlete finished sixth in the final of the Paralympic Games, the 50m rifle shooting event in the prone position SH2 – intended for shooters with limited movement of the arms, trunk and legs, or only the arms – at the premises of the National Shooting Center in Châteauroux.
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On the same day, during the qualifying matches, the brunette athlete took first place, the only woman to reach the final. “As always!”his father says cheerfully, before adding, with his little “ch’ti” accent: “She’s the world champion of matches. She beats them all, all, all.” Justine Bève smiles, accustomed to her father’s pride and to this unusual team, which she describes as a real “binomial”.
A tandem cemented by the taste for discipline and the desire to win, certainly, but not only. Because one thing is obvious: the love, trust and complicity that unite this father with his daughter suffering from a genetic disease, are a cement a thousand times more powerful than the simple spirit of competition. Their sporting story began when Justine Bève was 14 years old, in the village of Pas-de-Calais where she comes from. “I wanted to find an extracurricular activity and I wanted to try para football, but it was too far from home, says the young woman, confined to a wheelchair by muscular weakness, which does not allow her to lift a simple bottle of water. The shooting club, on the other hand, was only 300m from the house and already had members with disabilities.
“I managed”
For the shooter, it is a familiar world since the family includes hunters. From the beginning, it is Luc Bève who accompanies his daughter. He who carries the bags, unpacks their contents, sets up the chair, loads the weapons, fixes the shooting table, places the weapon on his daughter’s shoulder. Finally, he who buys the equipment, when the teenager begins to shine, jumping from one category to another and winning all the titles, at 10 and 50 m. Competition rifles, however, are expensive. “At the moment, it’s around 4,500 euros for the 10 m and 6,000 euros for the 50 mhe explains. But I managed.”
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