Nearly 500 days before the Paralympic Games in Paris, a partnership has been signed with the manufacturer Airbus to develop cutting-edge technologies for French athletes.
To put all their chances on their side at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, the French have just signed a partnership with a world-class advanced technology manufacturer: Airbus will put its know-how at the service of French athletes in Toulouse, in the one of the buildings of the European manufacturer, called the ProtoSpace. This laboratory placed under close surveillance, to avoid industrial piracy, welcomes the best engineers of the company who research and develop the aeronautical technologies of tomorrow such as hydrogen engines, even more aerodynamic fuselages.
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“We are divided into two buildings, explains Christophe Debard, who directs ProtoSpace. A building that is a manufacturing workshop with large machines, digital milling machines and all that, which cannot fit into an office environment, industrial 3D printers, water jet cutters to cut metal parts, laser cuts for everything plastic. And there, we are in the office part where we have the Protospace employees and elements to make electronics, to make small 3D printing.
“When my chair is poorly adjusted, I lose power in my shots”
In a small room, Christophe Debard scans the leg prosthesis of Paralympic triathlon champion Alexis Hanquinquant. This comma-shaped carbon blade sits on a checkered green mat with reflective dots. “There are two cameras that analyze the deformation of the laser beams that are sent and this deformation is translated into a 3D object, details Christophe Debard. We are at the beginning of the process, so we digitized his prosthesis. Now we can work on it on the computer before making what we designed digitally.”
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Alexis Hanquinquant, the Paralympic triathlon champion, hopes to improve his performance with his future “made in Airbus” prosthesis. He was the first para-triathlete to run with a carbon blade and today he is hungry for technological advancements. “Today, I think I am at the top level from a physical point of view. But indeed, there are still small details from a technical point of view that can be further improved, analyse Alexis Hanquinquant. So I won’t be able to reveal everything to you because it’s still a little secret. And then the idea is not to disclose everything to the competition either. We are still on very ambitious projects and once again, it is to win in Paris. So we really have the possibility of collaborating with Airbus, with engineers, equipment, a lot of capacities to bring us to this goal of going to win in Paris.
“The high-level Paralympic environment is all about looking for lots of little details that may seem trivial but are not. So it’s a great challenge and it’s super exciting.”
Alexis Hanquinquant, Paralympic triathlon championat franceinfo
A better prosthesis for a triathlete, to swim, cycle and run faster. It can also be the wheelchair of a para-badminton athlete like that of David Toupé. He has been working there with Airbus engineers for five years now. As a result, the made-to-measure aluminum and carbon chair is ultra-light, hyper-mobile and, above all, removable. “When my chair is badly adjusted, I lose power in my shots, says David Toupé. Personally, I really need a wheelchair that allows me to make clearances that go all the way to the back of the court, but also to be very precise in front and to be quick, provided I have a chair that forms one unit, a bit like a shoe, if it’s too big or if it’s not tight, we have a shoe that’s not competitive and me, it’s exactly the same thing. This chair gives me a much better chance of competing with the best.”
AT 500 days of the Paralympic Games
These parameters make the difference according to Claude Onesta, the former coach of the French handball team, now general manager of high performance at the national sports agency. “It’s the quest of any high-level coach, of any high-level athlete. It is, every day, to think about the small elements on which he will be able to play so that it can improve his potential and his performance. So, right away, we bring you a leftover prototype, we look, it works, it improves, and if it doesn’t work, we take another idea.”
“In sport, you can’t wait three years, four years to have the solution. If it doesn’t come quickly or if, very quickly, you don’t implement improvements, you will hardly wait. You don’t know not if you will still exist in the sport.”
Claude Onesta, general manager of high performance at the National Sports Agencyat franceinfo
This partnership between the National Sports Agency and Airbus is not a special case in France. There is also the Handilab in Bobigny, near the Olympic village, where French start-ups are working on technology adapted to the handicap. Insep, the National Institute for Sport, Expertise and Performance, has launched its “Paraperf” program. Enough to bring back a good harvest of medals, including now a little over 500 days.
