• Florent Marais arrived at the Antibes club in 2018. At 21, the swimmer who suffers from agenesis of the right leg, a malformation depriving him of the fibula and part of the calf, has just won the bronze medal in the 100m backstroke at the Tokyo Paralympic Games.

  • He answered the

    20 Minutes 

    questions 

    before resuming competitions.

  • This weekend, he is participating in the French handisport swimming championships but his goal is 2022, the world championships and above all ... the 2024 Paris Games.

The only athlete representing the Alpes-Maritimes at the Tokyo Paralympic Games, Florent Marais, 21, returned with a bronze medal, won in the 100m backstroke.

After "a difficult recovery", he is preparing to compete in the French championships this weekend in Berre l'Etang, in the Bouches-du-Rhône.

The swimmer who suffers from agenesis of the right leg, a malformation depriving him of the fibula and part of the calf, returns with

20 Minutes 

on his experience, "the dream of a lifetime", and on the next challenges that 'he wants to raise.

What does it feel like to be a Paralympic Games medalist?

Taking part in the Games is already the project of a lifetime.

To win this medal is to allow my dream to grow little by little.

Since I was 14, I have decided to devote all of my time to swimming.

It entails a lot of sacrifices and a lot of training.

In all, I've been preparing for the Paralympic Games for ten years.

Now I am not losing my goal of winning a gold medal in Paris in 2024.

How do you prepare for this goal?

The return to training after Tokyo was tough.

But it is necessary.

The year 2022 is a big year.

There is obviously Paris but also the world championships.

So we have to go back, concentrate.

For that, it's still ten workouts in the water, the equivalent of 12 km per day and 2h30 of weight training every two days.

I am lucky to be at the Antibes club, which is one of the largest structures for swimming, with two 50 m pools, the possibility of video analyzes, physiotherapists and a technical staff present just for me .

You can't do it alone.

My coach has already won seven Paralympic medals and has worked a lot at high level.

So I have a team that knows how to win a medal.

Winning a gold medal, the goal of any athlete in the end ...

In fact, I see my career exactly the same way an able-bodied athlete sees theirs. The passion came little by little. When I was 9 years old, when I started swimming following the advice of a doctor after an operation, I realized that it could be my thing. I did five years with the able-bodied. When I was 14, I was selected for the European Handisport Championships. From there I knew there was something to do and that's how I've turned my whole life around swimming. It is my personal and professional project. Afterwards, so much the better if, thanks to the times that were made during the Games, disabled sportsmen and women are making things happen. I am always happy to make young people dream, to show them that it is possible and why not be a way of motivating them.

How, on your side, do you motivate yourself?

I never really had a role model.

I prefer to go see people in training and analyze how they are progressing.

The performances, everyone can see them.

I am inspired by all the people I meet in training or in competition.

In Tokyo, for example, I did not want to miss out on human things and I am convinced that it was beneficial to me and that it is also thanks to this that I came home with a medal.

In general, I will look more at the one who came second, who does not have the “gift” of the first, but who does not give up and who works hard.

In the end, I have my own style and my own philosophy.

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  • Medal

  • Paralympic Games

  • Handisport

  • Swimming

  • Nice

  • Sport

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