Margot Boulet, from GIGN to the Paralympics, the route of a champion

Until the fall of 2019, Margot Boule had never touched a paddle. Four years later, here she is, a multi-medal winner of the French dance rowing team. Moreover, he added a new trophy to his young collection – the bronze he won at the European Championships in Slovenia last May. Barely back in her hometown of Provins in Saint-Marne, the Gendarmerie’s first disabled athlete, under the contract of SHND (Defence High Level Athlete), is already packing her bags. Destination Italy for internship; Then there was a regatta and World Cup event at Lake Varese in the foothills of the Pre-Alps. “These trips occupy me 200 days a year,” calculates the 33-year-old athlete, who pays 1,700 euros net per month. The schedule for the coming months is tight. the World Championships in Belgrade (Serbia), the first week of September and especially the Paralympic Games in Paris in the summer of 2024. That won’t leave him much time to renovate the purchased farm. his companion at La Chapelle-Moutils, “in the midst of woods and meadows.”

Margot Boulet, square shoulders and sculpted arms, guesses the silent questions. No, really. Only the scars on his left ankle betray the prosthesis he has been wearing since the summer of 2019. And her blue and white checkered blouse hides what was left on her lower back as a result of repeated surgeries. “I can no longer run or walk long distances, explore rough terrain or travel in any vehicle because some car seats make me feel like a martyr,” she says. With a bright smile, he immediately adds: “But I’m happy.” Glad you’re alive. I’m glad I’m out of the wheelchair for good. His life changed on March 17, 2017. On that day, a young recruit of the prestigious GIGN of the national gendarmerie intervention group became the victim of a very serious parachute accident. His canopy closes before landing, knocking him to the ground in a ten meter free fall.

sprained ankle

Evaluation. an ankle in debris and a fractured first lumbar vertebra. “I couldn’t feel my legs anymore,” he recalls. I thought. “Can I live if I become a paraplegic at the age of 26?” Then I felt an unbearable pain, which calmed me down. It would take him seven surgeries, many long months in the hospital and three years of rehabilitation to get back on his feet. GIGN was his dream. His own moon, won through persistence and training. An excellent swimmer, Margo was familiar with the very high level of pools, never giving up on learning. When he has his biology license in his pocket, he thinks. what job to choose when you are on the move and have a definite intention to work in the open air? He hesitates. Integrate the National Office of Hunting and Wildlife, the current French Office of Biodiversity? Or to join the ranks of the gendarmerie? He decides on this weapon and in November 2011 he enters the NCO school in Tule, Korez.

In the video, the Courts of Inequality campaign, which denounces inequalities in sport

A fighter’s journey

When he left, he chose the cavalry regiment of the Republican Guard, the one who discovered his passion for riding at the age of 19. He has some very strong memories from those years, such as this four-month mission in New Caledonia hunting hemp plantations. Or providing a motorcade in Alsace, “on horseback, in the middle of helicopters and racing cars.” Margot’s purpose at the time can be summed up in four letters: GIGN, the elite unit of the gendarmerie. The grail at the end of a formidable obstacle course for which the young woman has been preparing for two years, doggedly practicing boxing and running. In the spring of 2016, he overcame the first hurdle: election week. After some time, the very scary preliminary course begins. two months of physical and psychological tests, including a “water run” in ice water, with barely any sleep or food. The only girl among the sixty candidates, the young woman grits her teeth. “You have to have a hard head because we are told that we are bad, that we have nothing to contribute to GIGN, he says. Without the chemistry of the group, I would not have been one of the seventeen finalists.

Tokyo to Paris

He then began twelve months of regulatory training, between precision shooting, combat sports, commando training, speed driving, spinning… And, consequently, parachuting. Until this flight that shatters his body and hopes. But Margot Boulet does not allow herself to be defeated. Not from the stabbing pains that keep her from sleeping, and not from the post-traumatic stress that attacks her. At the rehab center, he returned to swimming to rebuild lost muscle and “find the right fatigue,” as he puts it. He rides Conquistador, his horse, before walking again.

From the first tests, she was the strongest of the girls. And he did better than most guys…

Charles Delval, manager of the French para-rowing team

His father, the president of a rowing club in Nogent-sur-Seine, on the edge of the Aub and Saint-Marne, spoke about him and his disability to a member of the French Rowing Federation, who immediately alerted Charles Delval, the boss. of the French para-rowing team. “Let’s admit that Margo was not a rower, but she is tall and athletic,” the latter emphasizes. He learned very quickly. From the first tests, she was the strongest of the girls. And he did better than a lot of guys… “In solo, he was crowned world indoor champion (on a machine) in February 2021. The French record is at stake. With her friends in the Mixed Four (two men and two women, plus one rower), she won a bronze medal at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, then a silver medal at the European Championships the following year. “The drive to achieve is in his genes,” observes his co-author, Emily Aquistapas. And his humility helps him progress.” Margot Boulet now has two fixed ideas. In Parathiavar, of course, take part in the Paralympic Games in Paris in the summer of 2024. And line up in second class, perhaps his favorite swim. One of the ways to make your teenage dreams come true…