2023-06-13 08:00:05
Selected for the next World Para Athletics Championships, Renaud Clerc confides in a few weeks before the event near Paris.
Only a few weeks away from the competition, how are you feeling?
I feel very good, trAnds confident. I am progressing very quickly and I feel that I have not yet arrived at my feetc of shape. This is already a good sign which suggests very good things for the world championships.
What did your preparation focus on?
We hope for a very good performance in these championships. Apart from the ddevelopment speed side and aIt isrobie, I didn’t focus my preparation on anything specific, I just tried to optimize everything so that all the lights were green. We also try to prepare for the heat.
What are your ambitions for these Worlds?
My goal is to reach the final. Afterwards, once in the final, we know that anything can happen. The first step is to make a top 8, or finalist in the world championship. It’s still something. Then, I look particularly at the top 6 and the top 4, because these are the minimums to qualify almost directly for the Paralympic Games. But I think that at my young age, making a top 6 would already be a more than satisfactory result.
Does a home championship represent different challenges for you?
Yes, of course, it represents different issues. We are lucky to have this test a year before the Paris Games, it is important to exploit it as well as possible sportingly. By that, I mean that, apart from the performance of the athletes, the bodies alongside us must also be efficient in order to be able to use this event as a marker of the evolution of disabled athletics in the landscape of French sport. It is important to allow people to identify with us and to show them that l’athlHandisport etism is not a sub-sport. It’s a high-level sport like any other that advocates also important values.
“I am in the middle of a reconstruction phase in relation to training and competition”
Do you manage to find the balance between the practice of sport and your studies?
It’s a balance that is quite difficult to find because these are studies that require a lot of time. This year my schedule was quite busy, I got up very early in the morning and I trained twice a day. With only a month to go before the World Championships and a few months before the Games, you have to know how to prioritize what seems most important. That’s why I made the choice to turn to sport and put my studies aside for the moment. The idea behind it is to be very efficient and to be able to win medals. However, I remain very attached to studies and I will continue to study, only at a lower frequency.
What are your prospects for Paris 2024?
It will be something to see after the Worlds. At 22, I mainly give myself very succinct and short-term goals, but I also have a long-term vision. I’m in the middle of a rebuilding phase from training and competition so I need to see one step at a time. My plans for Paris 2024 are already prepared, I will put them into practice right after the world championships. The goal is really to have a very good championship to get closer to the minimums for the 2024 Games. Then, we will have to do better at the Games than at the world championships, between top 3 or top 5, to honor those around me, myself and more generally all the work accomplished.
How do you see the future in para athletics?
When you’re a top athlete, it’s good to have performances and medals, but a few days later çno longer serves to nothing. The goal is really to come and share, tell, inspire the people who listen to us and to show that it is possible to put things in place. Sport and Paralympic sport can convey values and political messages for people with disabilities. We, Paralympic athletes, must carry rational messages and discourses for people with disabilities. Disability should not be rationalized in relation to Paralympic sport. Today’huidisability remains a real brake on a daily basis, because societyté is not yet adapted.
What do you hope these Worlds will change for disabled sports and for athletes with disabilities?
We will have to do the accounts after the Worlds, even if I do not think that they are the only bearers of change. I would like politicians to come out there and realize what Paralympic sport really is. What I want is the recognition of Paralympism and disabled sport in terms of respect for discipline, of course, but also in terms of money. It may seem dumb, but many athletes fear that after Paris 2024, the subsidies and resources granted to disabled sport will fall. What we are aiming for is the sustainability of this discipline and I hope that the world championships can be a first step on the way to the 2028 Games.
Interview by Valentine Vernouillet
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