Sitting volleyball player Lynda Medjaheri from Tarn dreams of Paris Olympics in 2024
Goal 2024 for the CMVB player and the French sitting volleyball team. Based on Blan, the volleyball player looks back on his rugged journey, an example of resilience.
The first stage of the 2022-2023 Sitting Volleyball Challenge de France will take place tomorrow at the Borde-Basse gymnasium. Today, on the same site, the sports health day will allow you to discover all kinds of volleyball and learn about it.
French sitting volleyball team player Lynda Medjaheri dreams of participating in the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. Meanwhile, he is the leader of the Castres Massaguel Volley-Ball section that will field three teams this Sunday in the first stage of the Challenge de France.
While the Phryges, the mascots of Paris 2024, were only announced this week, Lynda Medjaheri has been heading to the next Olympiad for almost two years now. With a single goal driving the days of this young forty-something: to participate in the Paralympic Games with the French sitting volleyball team, self-proclaimed “the Pioneers”, which he meets at regular intervals for international competitions and preparatory courses.
Amputated after a motorcycle accident in 2014
A unique challenge for this native of Lorraine, now based in Blan in Tarn, who had never trained in any competitive sport before trying the Paralympic discipline since 1980 and now has around fifty sections in France. “I just ride a bike and walk for fun, but I’ve never done volleyball before”, specified the one who participated in his first competition, the Silver Nation League, at the beginning of July 2021 in Rouen.
Lynda Medjaheri and sitting volleyball is the story of an accident and an encounter. From a drama of life, he turned it into opportunity and strength. “I had a motorcycle accident in 2014. After complications and many surgeries, I had an amputation in 2018 on the left tibia. During this same period, during information meetings, Lynda met Aurélie Garcia. She changed her life .
“It’s a little personal pride, but a big victory against my disability. After being confined to the house for four and a half years where I went from the couch to the armchair, sitting volleyball allowed me to meet some great people. »
“The French sitting volleyball team doesn’t exist yet. I immediately told him that if it was in an armchair, it wasn’t worth it. I’ve been in an armchair for too long…” This is why the idea of sitting volleyball appealed to him so quickly. “I tried it at an internship and I adopted it! A chance for two friends who are now part of the French sitting volleyball team, created in August 2019 before the coronavirus pandemic.
Although the girls were able to continue training with the status of top athletes, the team was too “young” to defend its chances at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo. Therefore, Lynda Medjaheri will have to wait until Paris 2024 to experience the Olympic thrill, ten years after her accident. “It’s a little personal pride, but a big victory against my disability. After being confined to the house for four and a half years where I went from the couch to the armchair, sitting volleyball allowed me to meet some great people. »
Sitting volleyball is open to able-bodied people
And to discover the competition with the French team, but also the Union club (in the suburbs of Toulouse) with a specific structure since 2015. The Castres Massaguel volleyball club has its own since last year and Lynda Medjaheri leads the this new sitting volleyball section in the different stages of the Challenge de France. “It is open to all able-bodied and seated volleyball players of all ages. You have to try to appreciate. “.
Provided you do some sheathing and have some strength in your arms to move. “The rules are the same as in classic volleyball, except that you have to put your butt on the ground when you have the ball and you have the right to counter the serve. With a 1.05m net for women and 1.15m for men , the discipline quickly became very playful.
