2024-08-19 19:45:14
Sofyane Mehiaoui, a member of the French wheelchair basketball team, did not appreciate the words of Teddy Riner, who described Paralympic athletes as “superheroes” during an interview with Marie-José Pérec on RTL.
“You need to stop talking about us like that, you’re not helping us.” The release of Teddy Riner on RTL on August 13 was not well received by everyone. During a discussion in the form of a review of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the French judo star looked ahead to the Paralympic Games with Marie-José Pérec. “We look at them, telling ourselves they are our heroes. “They are the real champions,” continued the Guadalupean colossus “With a disability… they are even superheroes.”
On Instagram, Sofyane Mehiaoui, a member of the French wheelchair basketball team, was not really grateful for the departure of the two Olympic champions. “It is a shame that we are overvalued in this way,” the para-athlete wrote on social networks.
“We’re not superheroes, we’re athletes”
Then Sofyane Mehiaoui moderated his comments: “I know it doesn’t make sense and that he wants to help us, but he is doing wrong, I want to respond so that people understand that Do not exercise completely.”
“The fact that we’re being talked about as superheroes doesn’t help that we’re disabled people and we want to be seen as normal people,” he said “When we’re overexposed, that’s not good. Are athletes like so come and see us because we are going to perform, we are going to achieve sporting achievements, that’s why you have to come and see us.”
“I don’t want miserabilism”
Teddy Riner and Marie-José Perec were not the first to discuss the Paralympic Games in a tone that was, according to some, a little too soft. Tony Estanguet also widely praised the merits of para-athletes: “It worries me a little when he says, because it means that we are treated differently. , we managed to make sure that we talk about athletes and their performances. It will begin with the first Paralympic Games in history on French soil on August 28 and will end on September 8.
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