20 years! The French wheelchair basketball team had not competed in the Paralympic Games since Athens 2004 – when it finished second last. Needless to say, Les Bleus are eagerly awaiting their first game against Canada on Friday, August 30 on Arena Bercy’s court.
But for the French, who had all but disappeared from the international radar since their silver medal at the 2010 world championships, qualification for the Games was hard fought. While the host country’s team sports teams generally qualify automatically for the Games, this was not the case for the 2024 edition.
The International Wheelchair Basketball Federation and the Paralympic Committee changed the rules and reduced the number of qualifying teams from 12 to eight. The goal of this rule change was to have a “high-intensity” tournament and games “at the highest level,” as Jérôme Rosenstiehl, in charge of organizing basketball and wheelchair basketball tournaments during the Games, explained in late April.
The players and their staff found this pill hard to swallow. “Nothing was guaranteed,” recalled Francis Dandine, a performance coach for Les Bleus. “At first, it was a heavy blow. We initially took it as an injustice, but then as a strength,” recalled Stéphane Binot, French wheelchair basketball’s sporting director. “We had to and fight to qualify.”
In April, the French team therefore had to go through a Paralympic qualifying tournament, aptly named “Last chance for Paris.” With four wins in four games, the wheelchair basketballers won the tournament hands down. This success is what allowed them to join the world’s top 8 alongside Germany, Canada, the Netherlands, Great Britain, the US, Spain and Australia.
Strict framework
The flip side of these new rules is that the team was able to choose its pool for the first games in Paris. Les Bleus will avoid the American team, who were crowned Olympic champions in Tokyo in 2021 and world champions in 2022, and will play their first three games against Canada (three Paralympic gold medals), Germany and Great Britain (European champions in 2023).
To support them in this journey, the team benefited from supplementary budgets for training and participating in multiple tournaments. “We took part in more training camps and head-to-heads with other teams than ever before in such a short timeframe,” explained Binot.
Les Bleus also underwent extensive preparation at Bordeaux’s Center for Resources, Expertise and Sports Performance under the guidance of a new coach, Franck Bornerand, assisted by Steven Caine, both appointed after the European Championship in June 2023, where the team finished seventh.
This duo is no stranger to wheelchair basketball. The former played able-bodied basketball and coached the Aigles du Velay (Puy-en-Velay) wheelchair basketball team. The latter is a former British wheelchair basketball player and was a Paralympic vice-champion at Atlanta 1996. “When I joined, I found a team full of individual talent. My goal was to ensure that everyone could blossom and enjoy themselves but also help the team as a whole,” explained Bornerand.
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His method? Establishing a strict framework without improvisation. His trademark? His demanding, almost harsh, coaching style. By his own admission, “it was very difficult at first. But we worked on our team play, raised our level and they began at the Paralympic qualifying tournament with a great drive and love for the game. The players expressed themselves fully, and it paid off.
A major challenge
The pair also put their finger on what wasn’t working in the team’s game: defense. “Working on this is what enabled us to make the qualifying tournament,” said team captain Audrey Cayol, 43, who is one of the Athens Games’ last remaining veterans. “I love basketball too much,” he added, noting that he is “not the kind of person to jump ship when it’s taking on water.” Others did. After the French team’s poor performance in Athens in 2004, 70% of its players left.
“They no longer enjoyed themselves. Our performance in competitions was poor. The means of preparation were not in line with the objectives,” explained Dandine.
Today, Les Bleus are as motivated as ever. In addition to Cayol, the French team will be able to rely on scorer Nicolas Jouanserre, a former top-level able-bodied basketball player who took up wheelchair basketball after having a prosthesis fitted to his right knee when his femur was infected by osteosarcoma (bone cancer). But also on its point guards, Louis Hardouin, Jérôme Laureri and Sofyane Mehiaoui, who’ve played for the French team since 2005, as well as Rémi Bayle, a defensive “warrior,” as Dandine called him.
The Tricolores are well aware of the size of the challenge ahead of them. While they’ve already defeated almost every team, they have also lost to all of them. But they all want to believe and dream of winning a medal. “Whatever its color, I’ll take it,” said Cayol, who was just 3 years old when Les Bleus were crowned Paralympic champions. 40 years ago!