The tone is determined, the look too.

Far, very far from this period when "I was drinking bottles while watching Netflix on my sofa, without knowing what to do with my life", recalls Staff Sergeant Guillaume.

This dark period was a few weeks after that day that changed everything.

On patrol in northern Mali in the spring of 2016, an improvised explosive device (IED) exploded not far from him, projecting a metal plate in his lower back.

“Enormous pain,” he recalls.

The sciatic nerve is severed, and the trajectory of his military career is brutally fractured.

"Sport saved me"

"After being treated, I found myself alone at home, without knowing what to do. I was drinking a lot," he says.

A phone call will then save his life.

The army will offer him a "sea and wounds" course on the Basque Coast, in Bidart.

"I found myself surfing a canoe, and I realized that even with a severed sciatic nerve, I could do things".

It is then the beginning of a rebirth and a bulimia of sport.

Staff Sergeant Guillaume, who decided to remain in a standing position despite his handicap and not to use a wheelchair, will then try everything, from archery, basketball and sitting volleyball, with an ascent Mont-Blanc in June 2021.

He also participates in the Invictus Games, this competition created in 2014 by Prince Harry, initially reserved for soldiers injured during the Afghan conflict, then extended since to all soldiers injured in operations.

He also intends to be part of the adventure of the Paralympic Games in Paris in two years.

"Now sport punctuates my life. I feel good, I have challenges, goals. We can clearly say that sport saved me, yes," he explains.

Sport to help the wounded of war to rebuild themselves is a way that the army has adopted for a long time.

The idea dates back to the mid-1960s after the end of the Algerian war.

"There were a lot of young people injured at the time, and they came to get treatment at the Invalides, but we had to find an occupation for them," says Corporal Gaëtan, head of the Cercle sportif de l'Institut national des Invalides (CSINI). ), of which Master Sergeant Guillaume is a member and which has nearly 300 licensees, valid and invalid.

"Sport is one of the levers that we use for the reconstruction of the wounded, it is the first level of what we do", explains Corporal Gaëtan, "then there are some who discover themselves , which resize and compete".

"Psychological injuries"

At the CSINI sports hall, nestled in the heart of the Invalides, apart from the woodwork and the patina of the place somewhat in its own juice, nothing a priori distinguishes the place from another classic sports hall.

On closer inspection, however, the devices are not quite standard.

"All the devices are adapted so that the wounded can use them", explains Corporal Gaëtan.

Looking up, CSINI's medal list at the Paralympic Games sends a message to the hosts of the venue.

Some have managed to go beyond a mechanical and psychological reconstruction, and everyone can therefore claim this overcoming.

“We take care of 1,500 to 1,600 wounded to varying degrees, because we also have to take care of psychological injuries,” explains General Christophe Abad, military governor of Paris.

"We support them by restoring their confidence. But there are also people who are struggling to get out of the water, there are few, but there are", he admits.

© 2022 AFP