Despite the eternal disappointment of the quarter-final lost to South Africa (28-29) on Sunday, there is still a French rugby team to support during a world competition at home. The International Wheelchair Rugby Cup begins this Wednesday in Paris, Halle Carpentier, and ends Sunday in Bercy. The Blues will have to contend from the start (5 p.m.) with the United States, world number 1, before continuing on Thursday against New Zealand then on Friday against Japan.
Ryadh Sallem’s teammates will aim for one of the first two group places to participate in the final stages this weekend. The tournament, which brings together the eight best teams in the world, is co-organized by France 2023, World Wheelchair Rugby (the International Wheelchair Rugby Federation) and the French Handisport Federation. It must serve as a springboard for the Paris 2024 Games, as the 53-year-old athlete, with multiple lives and activities, explains to us.
15 times French swimming champion, three-time European wheelchair basketball champion before switching to rugby, Ryadh Sallem (53 years old) is also the co-founder of CAP SAAAan association with numerous sporting, social, ecological and artistic ramifications, which promotes a positive vision of disability.
This tournament is organized at the same time as the Rugby World Cup? What does this mean to you?
I will make a historical aside to begin. When Bernard Lapasset [décédé le 3 mai dernier] was president of World Rugby [de 2008 à 2016], I kept pestering him so that there would be a rapprochement. When we applied for Paris 2024, he promised me that before the end of his mandate, he would set up a merger with World Wheelchair Rugby to be able to carry out this project in France. There is obviously Bernard’s spirit behind this event. This touches me because he was a very, very great rugby man.
Then, the fact of having the bipedal Rugby World Cup and the wheelchair Rugby World Cup at the same time, between the quarters and the final of the first, is very powerful, very strong symbolically. We are going to feel a foretaste of the 2024 Games. We already had it with the World Para-Athletics Championships in Charléty (last July), and it continues.
You are attacking this competition in the shoes of a double reigning European champion, in 2022 and 2023…
(He cuts) We are also European B champions in the Czech Republic (in 2015). A title is a title. It was our first as European champion and then we won two others in A.
On the other hand, France has never done better than 5th at the Worlds and 6th at the Paralympic Games. What is your ambition for this home competition?
The union minimum is a podium. If it’s the highest step, so much the better. Today, we are 5th in the world. We must gradually build up our strength to be there in 2024 and go for gold.
Are these Paris Games clearly the ultimate objective?
Yes. In the career of any athlete who can have access to the Games, it is the Holy Grail.
What can we say about your sport, which was originally called “murder ball”, which says everything about the commitment necessary to practice it?
It was created in Canada in the 1970s by former American hockey and football players who became quadriplegic after suffering whiplash. They wanted to create a collective combat sport and they mixed the rules of several sports, basketball, volleyball, handball, hockey, American football, rugby, to be able to be adapted to their disability.
It was called “murder ball”, then it was “quad rugby” and now it’s “armchair rugby”. At some point, when you want to be at the highest level, integrated into the Games, “murder ball” is not politically correct. We chose a less aggressive, less barbaric name. It is the men and women of rugby who have recovered this sport. That’s why today it’s called “chair rugby”. It doesn’t correspond to the rules or the oval ball, but it is the soul and spirit of rugby.
Why is it important to remember this?
Some extreme purists say it’s not rugby. I tell them: “Originally, the rugby ball is a round ball. » Our sport has evolved, today it carries the values of rugby and these are the values which are the most important. In rugby, there are fundamentals: we do not abandon our injured, our comrades, our friends, our girlfriends because they have failed in life or on the field. It’s the spirit of rugby that is most important in these kinds of stories, not the shape of the ball.
What should someone new to wheelchair rugby expect?
At first, it may be surprising. It’s like disability. The first minutes, we watch less pieces. And then, we get into the game. Because there is commitment, there is strategy. It’s an intelligent, spectacular sport that makes noise. We also have colorful characters. This is what will engage the public.
How did you start practicing this sport?
I made the French swimming team, then 18 years of basketball and now for my early retirement I am in rugby (smiles). Already around 1992, some guys were telling me: “you have to come to rugby!” » However, I had barely been integrated into the French wheelchair basketball team, I was living my passion, my dream, and I replied to them: “after my career, we will see if I still have a little left of energy. »
In 2009, I left the French basketball team. And there, a friend suggested that I play rugby again, start a rugby club. Adrien Chalmin (member of the French wheelchair rugby team) calls me and says: “you have the right handicap, you have high-level experience, don’t you want to join us? “. I made the mistake of saying “yes” to the invitation to take part in a French team training course in Bourges. I got knocked out and the virus started again. We started a rugby club in Paris but in the meantime I played for Roubaix, Clermont and Stade Toulousain. It’s been going on for 13 or 14 years now.
Is there no weariness at 53?
After the Rio Games (in 2016), I told myself that maybe I was going to bow out. But Paris won the organization of the Games (in September 2017) and I saw it as a sign that I had to end my career at home and that I was going to do everything for it. Obviously, there are ups and downs. But I left like in 40.
You have a lot of activities, between your functions for Paris 2024 (ambassador and member of the board of directors), your CAP SAAA association and your sporting career. How do you manage all this?
I had to let go of a few other functions. I try to organize and balance my schedule, juggling between appointments to be able to devote part of your time to training, lunchtimes and evenings. I schedule appointments so that it doesn’t fall too early in the morning so that you can have your recovery time. I also manage to do quite a few meetings on Zoom.