Updated August 28, 2024 at 6:10 p.m.*
PARIS — Commercials and billboards featuring disabled athletes and their special sports equipment are everywhere in France ahead of the Paralympic Games, which open today (August 28) in Paris and will last until September 8.
But the equipment designed for athletes, from racing blades to wheelchairs, is not available to everyone. Even today, in this age of inclusivity and representation, sports prostheses, which can cost up to 20,000 euros, are still not reimbursed by France’s Social Security — unlike those used by amputees in their daily lives.
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Yet a handful of para athletes are emerging on the international scene. And the future performances depend in part on the Airbus laboratories in Toulouse. For years, the aeronautics company has been working to optimize equipment for Paralympic athletes. This venture was launched by Christophe Debard, an engineer with a passion for sport.
“When you have a physical handicap, like me who has a leg amputation, and you walk down the street, you can get looks of pity. On the contrary, when I do sports, people are often impressed. It’s a good way of regaining confidence in disability and rediscovering pleasure,” explains Debard, who founded Humanity Lab, where Airbus employees volunteer to work on projects related to disabilities or education.
In his spare time, he enjoys hiking, windsurfing and mountain biking. “When I was a child I would watch top-level athletes on television push themselves beyond their limits; it was very engaging. Helping athletes through Airbus will give them visibility, and perhaps in return convince people with disabilities to take up sports.”
Less weight, better reach…
It all began in 2019, when French para badminton champion David Toupé knocked on the door of Airbus’ Mission Handicap, looking for financial support. With the help of 40 Airbus engineers, he found much more than money — even before he began training for the Tokyo Olympics: For two years, they devote themselves to creating a new wheelchair for Toupé.
At the same time, they worked with fencing champion Maxime Valet to design a new handle that would give him an additional 10 centimeters of reach — significant marginal gains — and help him win a bronze medal in Tokyo and at the European Championships.
Seduced by Airbus’ expertise, the French National Sports Agency (ANS), which has invested 69 million euros in the development of handisport since its creation, decided to entrust the company with a dozen athletes — each with their own challenges — and 5 million euros in funding for research.
“Of the 54 initial projects, we have completed 17,” Debard says. “Moving an athlete from 15th to 10th place in the world is less interesting than helping them move from 3rd to 1st place. Similarly, we didn’t have expertise on issues such as tires — which we buy rather than produce for our aircraft — for wheelchairs.”
… A one-piece tandem
For the champions of France’s para cycling team, Airbus has also developed a small revolution: a one-piece tandem. Whereas conventional tandems are designed in two blocks, with one seat for the able-bodied guide and the other for the visually impaired or blind athlete, the Airbus creation, fashioned from a single piece, ensures greater synchronicity for the duo.
“By their very nature, performance para sports are unfair.”
In doing so, Airbus also spares the athletes and their teams the mental burden imposed by time. “If we had wanted to work with an English brand, Filament Bikes, one of the best in tandem manufacturing, the lead time would have been 18 months,” says para cycling coach Mathieu Jeanne, who is happy to no longer have to worry whether his athletes will receive their equipment in time to compete. The team was able to test the prototypes at the World Championships in Rio last March.
The race for medals
With the help of Airbus, France has climbed back to the top of the list of best-prepared countries in terms of para sports equipment. While the test has yet to be confirmed at the Olympic Games, and at forthcoming international competitions, the country is nevertheless catching up with some of its European competitors: Germany and England, the leading figures of parasport since the London 2012 Paralympic Games, where almost 2.4 million (of 2.5 million) tickets were sold.
Does Airbus give French competitors a head start? No more so than other factors inherent to para sports. According to coaches familiar with the complexity of the Paralympic environment, youth programs, which allow new athletes to fall in love with sports, are also important.
“By their very nature, performance para sports are unfair,” says Arnaud Litou, ANS Paralympic Performance Manager.
“On the one hand, you have athletes in an OECD country, who use carbon blades and sockets for their prostheses, and who can call on financial assistance for this very high-end equipment to supplement the sometimes very low level of support, as is the case for our French athletes. On the other hand, we have athletes from other countries who will be competing with home-made, old prostheses that we no longer use at home,” Litou says.
And after the Olympics?
Airbus does not yet know what will happen to the project once its commercial contract with ANS ends — that date has not been announced — but everyone hopes it will be extended. Perhaps at the Winter Olympics, where disciplines such as Alpine skiing, Nordic skiing, snowboarding, wheelchair curling or para ice hockey could well benefit from Airbus expertise.
The Paralympic Games are due to open in one of Europe’s least accessible capitals.
“For downhill ski chairs, we are fortunate to have a natural partnership with a French manufacturer, Tessier, which is already the world reference. In this field, our athletes are already in the vanguard,” Litou said, hinting at discussions with Airbus for the Milan Winter Olympics in 2026.
It is proof, if proof were needed, that when given the means a company can radically change the game. And it is a fine lesson in humility at a time when the Paralympic Games are due to open in one of Europe’s least accessible capitals; In Paris, the quality of a wheelchair makes little difference when only 9% of the metro network is accessible to the disabled.
*Originally published June 24, 2024, this article was updated August 28, 2024 with enriched media.
