Teddy Riner called the athletes “super heroes” and won an ippon – Libération

2024-08-22 15:16:04

Sofyane Mehiaoui, a member of the French wheelchair basketball team, criticized the French judo star for supporting what he considers too much of a term that diminishes the performance of athletes with disabilities.

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What a great team spirit, generous and inclusive: that’s what we said to each other, seeing Teddy Riner thinking for the athletes, right after he won his two gold medals on the Olympic tatamis. From August 6, to RTBF, the boss of French judo underlined the need to highlight Paralympic athletes. “It’s important because we fight, we train but the real credit goes to them. They have a disability that is very difficult to live with and they manage to do amazing things. The real Olympics will begin with the Paralympics. ” And a week later, it was repeated on RTL, during the cross-examination with Marie-José Pérec. “They’re just amazing, they’re real champions,” Riner’s praise. “Indeed, what people do not understand, went on to become a three-time Olympic sports champion, “We look at para-athletes and say they are our heroes, because we know what it’s like to train every day.” “With disabilitiesemphasized Riner, They are great heroes. “ “For us they are the Avenger”added Pérec, referring to the Marvel saga.

But alas. Very, inappropriate and anti-hero, Sofyane Mehiaoui has been damaged, a member of the French wheelchair basketball team, on Instagram. The message, posted in “history”, the content of which disappeared after twenty-four hours, no longer exists, but he reported as follows: “You really need to stop talking about us like that, you are not helping us, we are people with disabilities and we want to be considered normal people. When we are in excess, it is not good. We are not heroes, we are athletes. So come see us because we’re going to make it, we’re going to succeed in sports, that’s why you have to come see us.” Sofyane Mehiaoui would have delayed, while driving the point home: “I know he doesn’t mean it and he wants to help us, but he’s going about it the wrong way. I want to respond so that people understand that. But when Teddy says that, it also means that we don’t totally entertaining.”

Therefore, some will oppose ungratefulness. But the ippon of this basketball player shows a feeling often felt by athletes: that by making them heroic, we distinguish them (which is a form of discrimination, even if it is positive) once again, and, paradoxically, by emphasizing them. Meriting “difference”, by putting them on a miraculous footing, we overlook their actions, in a way linked to their weakness. “Pain”, “miserableism”, “mercy” are emotions that are normal. And to call for equal treatment with able-bodied athletes. That said, are not the latter themselves superheroes, at least for the common people, and not anyone who has been chosen, Olympic or Paralympic, exceptional, out of the ordinary, to achieve such activities ?