Sport and disability: how can the two be reconciled at a local level?

Over the course of three days, a series of activities took place, involving both children and adults, at facilities dedicated to athletes such as the CEES, at centres catering for young people with disabilities such as the IME, and as part of National School Sports Day with the UNSS. With three elite wheelchair athletes in attendance, the aim of these events was to change attitudes so that disability is no longer seen as a barrier. But the obstacles lie elsewhere: inadequate everyday and sports facilities, a lack of pavements for wheelchair users, a lack of accessible transport, and so on. All these barriers were the subject of a round-table discussion, held to round off the events on Friday 18 September at the Grand Case Beach Club, attended by around twenty representatives from the worlds of sport, disability, the National Education System, and the medical and social sector. The aim? To lay the groundwork and explore the early stages of potential solutions to make sport more accessible and inclusive.

Three athletes, three stories

Alex Adélaïde (2016 Rio Paralympic Games in para-athletics and 2024 Paris Paralympic Games in para-weightlifting, 2026 European silver medallist in bench press), Yoan Lamart (French Para Weightlifting champion, 5th at the European Championships), and Maki Telemake (WBFC World Champion in Shindokai karate) are three elite athletes. One has had a disability since birth, the second became disabled following a road traffic accident, and the third, who is also recovering from a road traffic accident, will be able to regain the use of his legs. Yet their stories are similar. They have experienced PE lessons where children with disabilities can only be spectators, classes where ‘the necessary facilities are not in place’, and the difficulty of balancing work, training, recovery… and family life. They are the first to want to change perceptions of disability in sport.

A path fraught with obstacles

Over the past 20 years, however, things in the region have changed thanks to organisations such as OVE Caraïbes (an offshoot of the Tournesol association), as well as teachers specialising in adapted physical activity, organisations such as Handynamique, and sports clubs whose coaches and volunteers are taking action. Nevertheless, whilst the sports movement has a vital role to play in this progress, the organisations cannot shoulder the entire burden. They can, within their own means, help to make sport more accessible, adapt facilities, change attitudes and enable new groups to find their place in sport. But the crux of the matter remains funding: to train instructors, purchase the right equipment and provide transport for these specific groups.
Setting up a disabled sports league, as highlighted by Thierry de Saint-Auret (Caribbean Karaté Oyama and coach to Maki Telemake), would already be a good start. Thinking about ways to develop a sustainable and inclusive range of activities in Saint-Martin inevitably involves the voluntary sector. The CTOS proposes to bring together project leaders to support them in their search for funding and to raise their concerns with the CNOSF.
Sophie Darrigade, the Collectivité’s Director of Sport, proposed – and the idea met with consensus around the table – that we start with adapted sport before considering elite-level sport, by considering the activities that could be offered, and by developing the ‘sport voucher’ scheme for these groups.
In conclusion, organisations wishing to work towards this aim must make themselves known so that they can then collaborate. This round-table discussion was a first step; the ideas now need to be put into practice.