2024-08-28 22:33:58
The first individual archery events take place this Wednesday, August 29 on the Esplanade des Invalides. Archer Damien competes in the W1 category, reserved for athletes with a disability similar to quadriplegia, with impairment in the lower legs, trunk and at least one arm. An athlete with an amazing history, who competed as a professional athlete in 1996 at the Atlanta Olympics. At 51, Damien Letulle is the first archer in history to participate in both the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
By Élodie Vilfrite
For the Paris Paralympic Games, six archers qualified – two women and four men – including Damien Letulle. A born competitor, Damien Letulle fell in love with shooting at the age of 10, when his grandfather gave him his first bow. Quickly, the podiums came one after the other. In 1996, the archer was 23 years old. His bronze medal at the European Championships opened the doors to the Olympic Games in Atlanta. Recently retired, he was already hoping for the Sydney Games, but a bad fall changed his life. Damien became a quadriplegic. He went 20 years without shooting archery.
« I have a hard time seeing high level athleticism in a body that is not 100% functional. I don’t want to do it again and then I’m afraid I’m not strong enough. I rather invest in the efforts to develop intelligence while completely forgetting about the action. And the days of the selection of the Paris Games arrived, he gave me a press. »
Since then, Damien Letulle has been training relentlessly. In 2020, he won the French handicap sports record. Archers practice two shooting sessions per day. A demanding preparation tailor-made for the championship.
“…I’m having a blast! »
« I am very active physically. In terms of adaptations, hundreds of designs were made to overcome the fact that I could not open my fingers to release the strap, or press a trigger. With some engineer friends, we created a way of shooting that was a little different, but which matched what I did before. Today, with the adaptations found, I manage to get a lot of joy when the arrows go and some good ones arrive in yellow. And there, I received a thunderbolt ! »
Participating in the Paris games is the taste of reward. Especially since archery events take place on the Esplanade des Invalides. The place is intimately connected to Damien’s journey.
« After the accident, there was a time when I was in the Invalides center, a military rehabilitation hospital, which gave a lot of meaning to the event. There, I spend time in my future question. As I looked out the window, I said to myself:What will I do?“When I realize that today, more than 20 years later, I am at the feet of the arrows that shot this dome, it has come a long way since that time. »
An amazing way, written directly into your skin. Not long ago, he took a hole. The archer has both forearms tattooed: on the left, the Olympic ring, on the right, the agitossymbol of the Paralympic Games. The final rounds of archery events will be held on September 1st.
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