She carried the flag of the French delegation to the Paralympic Games in PyeongChang, in 2018. This Friday, March 4, she leaves the honor to her teammate and Nordic skier Benjamin Daviet for the opening ceremony of the Beijing Paralympic Games . Not sorry to remain anonymous, very relative for an eight-time Olympic champion, French record holder for the number of gold medals. “My four Sochi medals went relatively unnoticed. Not those of PyeongChang, which caused a pleasant media frenzy, but not necessarily easy to manage”, explains the 28-year-old Savoyard girl.
→ ANALYSIS. Paralympic Games in Beijing: the French team begins to dream of the podium
A year after PyeongChang, she found herself on a completely different podium, parading among fashion models for L’Oréal. “A little dizzy, I was honored by this experience that I tried to apprehend with naturalness, she says. The mountains, my family’s values help me keep my feet on the ground, at home in Arêches-Beaufort (Savoie), I remain the little Marie for everyone and that suits me. »
“I am calmer”
Last of a family of four children with a father director of the Beaufort cheese cooperative, Marie, born with an atrophied arm extended by a single finger, needed her entourage to cash in on the following two seasons, 2020 and 2021, rather disappointing. “I needed to find in my heart the reasons to continue. Competition is a difficult life, we travel all the time. I had started very young, I had the impression of having done the trick, I was lost. »
The last winter was strewn with breaks, discussions, mental work sessions with her coaches and those close to her, before she made the decision to set off again for a trip to Beijing. “I believe that the tigress that we have seen on skis for the past ten years has calmed down. I came to Beijing lighter, more serene, less burdened with the responsibility of the team’s performance. I’m trying to have fun.” explains the skier, whom this new posture has liberated in her practice.
→ MAINTENANCE. Paralympic Games: “Let’s show that disabled athletes exist and perform”
Contested by young skiers with long teeth, in particular a young Russian (who will be deprived of the Games), her unchallenged domination is no longer in order after three Grand Slams at the world championships, i.e. the five possible titles in the five disciplines. (1) in 2013, 2015 and 2019. But she came out with a more than honorable mention of four medals, including two gold, from the last Lillehammer Worlds in January. “It proves that my reflections have borne fruit”, underlines the young woman, who had to interrupt her championships following an injury that has now healed on the valid arm.
“Give Back What I Have Received”
Her atrophied arm will be equipped with a prosthesis decorated with 150 messages of encouragement inscribed or drawn by all those who have supported her since her beginnings. “There won’t be any foreign audience in Beijing, I won’t have the supporting band cheering me on, she regrets, this prosthesis will allow me to think of those who helped me grow as I was and of those who were not lucky enough to have such a small handicap as mine, for me this single little finger was a key to open lots of doors, I can even say that it was lucky. For others it is obviously different. »
Almost decided to hang up the skis after Beijing, she will stay in the middle. “It’s time to give back what I received, disabled sport is gradually coming out of the shadows, but it still needs help and that’s what I’m here for”, says the one who sees herself well at the Paralympic Games in Milan-Cortina d’Ampezzo, but in another role: that of ambassador for disabled sport, which she has already begun to exercise when she joins the Athletes’ Commission of the Committee of organization of the Paris 2024 Summer Games. Then, it will be necessary to compose without skiing, but above all without the gold of the medals which also bring in a lot… of money (€65,000 per title). “It does not intimidate me to earn a good living, I have worked a lot for that and the sporting profession is precarious, it can stop suddenly. In any case, for me, it will stop soon. »
————
Russian and Belarusian athletes excluded from the Paralympic Games
After authorizing Russian and Belarusian athletes on Wednesday March 2 to participate in the Beijing Games under a neutral flag, the Paralympic Committee reversed its decision on Thursday March 3. Athletes from the two countries at war with Ukraine are finally excluded. The Paralympic Committee explained that its reversal was linked to threats from certain delegations not to line up in the events if Russian athletes were also present. The French Paralympic Committee, which had regretted the first option, welcomed this reversal, even if its president Marie-Amélie Le Fur never brandished the threat of a French boycott.
