ArnAudAssoumani

When i feel hopeless about a situation i first need to be alone and i usually listen heavy music, or dance... Try too disconnect for a while and stopping thinking. Then i need too fill myself with positive energy from people i love. Go out, go seeing a movie or a show... Realise that not everything is turning around me and not being to hard on my self.
Be kind and it's ok to feel this way. Talk with people or friends.

So this question i have it a lot. There is two scenarios:
1 - If I was as passionate about track and field and had the same burning fire in my stomach to improve and then compete, then I think I would have made it to the Olympics. I would have been a better athlete if I had the same dedication and will to be the best, because I would be physically more balance, I would run faster, I would be a bit more coordinated, I would be a bit stronger because few exercises like cleans would be possible to do. Adding that to the neuromuscular connections which would be different plus less injury do to less physical compensation, I think I would have been able to jump minimum 40cm more. My Personal best is 7m82 and i fouled few jumps over 8m20.
But the
2 - Is that only the kid dream is not enough for me as a fuel. Today discriminations, non equality of a fuel for training harder, to show that is possible and i wanted to one the first one to qualify for both Olympics and Paralympics in 2012 for London. The statement was to bring an electrochoc to the public by being as performant as able bodied athletes even bitting them with less. That's a powerful message.
Without this personal and intimate willing to change things i am not sure i would have tried to be an athlete in the first place because my life would be totally different.
It's like in Back to the future, an event changing in the past is changing the present and the future.

And it's the end ! Thank you everyone for all of your questions, it was an amazing experience. Please watch the 2024 Paralympics and you might see me there ;). Might do more AMA in the future !
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Merci beaucoup!😉🦾 Very much appreciated. I and we (paralympic athletes) need support so cheering are always more than welcome! 🤗
I guess you'd like to know some secrets which could happen in the village 😜!
As an athlete what I can say of the Paralympic Games experience (same for the Olympic when i exchange with my Oly colleagues) is that the village life is a wonderful experience.

So to give you the context you have more than 6000 athletes for Oly and more than 4200 athletes for Para in the village (a bit less because you often have 2 villages depending on where are setting the other events) plus the other members of the team (doc, physio, team managers for each sports, logistician, coaches...) plus all the volunteers working in the village plus all the people working for all services as every normal city. So a huge amount of people being here for the same thing, regardless your culture, your language, your ideology, your religion, you are here representing your country under the same rules for every athlete! No events like that exists in the world, it's unique and at first completely overwhelming and impressive.

Every athlete always wears clothes representing it's country, countries and sharing buildings and you could measure the size of the delegation by counting the number of flags floating onto the balconies apartments and floors, all these colors, all of these languages that you have never heard, this opponent look that you cross for the first time when you are heading to the restaurant.

Everything is made for you to be in the same and the best conditions as possible. You are sharing the same kind of apartments and rooms. Usually apartment you share with 3 or 5 others roommates and every room are made for two. Which is sometimes not the best if your colleague sneeze.

Everything is free, drinks, food, you have to be careful because you can eat 24/24 7/7 and you have food from all around the world to adapt to your normal diet. Food from Asia, Africa, Western Europe, Italian, French, Mediterranean, indian, japanese... you need to watch out because the games could be over before even starting!
The day before the opening ceremony is really impressive. All the countries getting reunited down their building, dressed perfectly ready to parade behind their flag in the stadium. the hundreds of bus and this crazy logistic to bring the hundreds of teams to the stadium.

The wait and effervescence climbing, the sound of the stadium and the public as you getting closer to the arena entrance.

All the team screaming the national anthem holding each other under the tunnel before entering, then hitting the track seeing this flashes, the crazy volume of the crowd, the excitation, the tears rising in your eyes and this sentence you are telling yourself "all this hard work for that" then sharing the same sentence with your team mate you are training with, try to catch the first camera and wave because your family, your friends your fans, the world is watching, feeling tiny as if it was not real, feeling tiny because the beauty of the Games are the deep fraternity, freedom and equality spirit, being that kid walking and realising its dreams and making proud thousands of persons., from your first coach, the person who believes in you, the ones who were there and told you not to quit, your mother who has always been there for you...

Then you are back again in the moment, wanting to dance and celebrate, but this is not the accomplishment, now you need to do your best and value all this countless hours spent to be here, sweat, tears and blood need to be worth it. It's just the beginning now you need to be as instinctive as an animal and express yourself at the best as you can, no regrets!! 😤

My best athletic achievement, performance wise would be the french national championship in Bercy in 2010 (yeah it's already a while ago😅) where i jumped 7m82 and won a bronze medal. I was the first athlete with a disability who won a medal at a national able bodied championship (i don't like to point able or disable, that's still how it is)
I was behind the two best french long jumper of history. Beyond the performance the message saying it's not because you have a disability, a difference that you cannot think, you cannot create, you cannot perform. That an important stand point thanks too the performance it expanded to resonance of the message.
Non athletic achievement: I wear different arm prosthetics and i have some designed one. When i go too school or work with foundation, this original arm becomes a dialogue tools, allowing children and i to connect and go beyond our physical differences. we are all equal because we are all different