Paris 2024 Paralympics | They will give us chills: Stéphane Houdet:
He is most likely France’s most well-known Para athlete. With three Paralympic doubles crowns and a silver medal in singles under his belt, this champion is a key member of the French team. Presenting.He competed in four games, from Beijing to Tokyo, and won three gold medals in the Paralympics in addition to one silver and one bronze. His record speaks for itself. You may also add a plethora of victories—a total of twenty-four—in Grand Slam competitions, both in singles and doubles.
He’s actually won everywhere and everything!On November 20, 1970, Stéphane Houdet was born in Saint Nazaire. An excellent athlete, he began playing tennis at the age of eight and went on to rank 2/6 in the sport while pursuing his veterinary surgery degree in Nantes.
Top ranking in golf
- He lost the use of his left knee in a catastrophic motorcycle accident in Austria in August 1996. Nevertheless, he made the most of it and started playing golf even though he could no longer play tennis.
- And as the all-arounder finished his coursework and obtained his official veterinary medical degree, he unsurprisingly rose to the top of the French and then European impaired golf rankings.
- It didn’t suit him, though, and it wasn’t enough. He was more and more limited by his stiffening left leg, and at the end of 2004, he made the decision to have it amputated.
He initially played wheelchair tennis the following year, when he won his first competition and fell in love with the game. His development was so rapid that, in less than three years, he turned professional and, alongside Michaël Jérémiasz, won his first gold medal in doubles at the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games.
A novel new chair
- In his sport, Stéphane is now firmly established at the top of the international rankings and holds the top spot on a regular basis. Year after year, he would remain there and amass one of the most remarkable records in all sports for French athletes.
- But the multi-medalist didn’t stop there; he’s always searching for new ideas and creative solutions. He has created a new style of wheelchair tennis called “on his knees,” which provides him more force and better reach for a player who is regarded as one of the slowest on the circuit.
- His new chair, which has two enormous inclined wheels, is a technological marvel.
It had been fifteen days since I had been comatose, and during that time I had been unable to put my spoon in my mouth on any occasion. In addition to that, I had the feeling that I was lacking something certain. An individual who never forgets his roots is the protagonist of this story, which narrates the story of a man. I was more concerned with that mouthful than I was with hitting a ball or clutching a racket at that precise moment in time. I was more concerned with getting that mouthful in. I had my full attention focused on putting the mouthful in my mouth.