“Better late than never!” As he leaves his medical appointment at the heart of the Raymond-Poincaré hospital in Garches (Hauts-de-Seine), Pierre-Yves quotes the adage with a laugh. This popular formula applies perfectly to his case: at 65, this patient admits to having waited “six decades” before taking up ice hockey – a sport that he had previously only watched from the stands, to support his hockey-playing son. “I had to become disabled to get into it, and discover that para-hockey is an exceptional sport!”, he says as he picks up his crutches. In the premises of the Connected Parasport Health Institute (ISPC) located in the heart of the Parisian hospital center, the man was supported, advised and equipped by a series of doctors, nurses, occupational therapists, physical activity teachers and engineers, in order to find and practice the sport best suited to his disability. He is not the only one: last year, more than 1,200 consultations of the same type took place within the walls of this institute, inaugurated in November 2021 and unique in its kind.
“Our goal is to make physical activity medically and technically possible for all people with disabilities, with tailor-made support for each patient,” summarizes Professor François Genêt, president of the Institute and head of the hospital’s physical medicine and rehabilitation department. The specialist is used to seeing things on a grand scale: his specialized center in Garches is only the “mini-laboratory” of a much larger project, which will open its doors in 2026, in Les Mureaux, in the Yvelines. The “new generation” ISPC will be installed there in more than 8,500 square meters of brand new premises, which will allow no fewer than 16,000 specialized consultations in disabled sport to be carried out each year.
In this unique center in France, designed to welcome all people with disabilities interested in physical activity, from experienced athletes to beginners, including Paralympic athletes, nothing will be left to chance. All the premises will obviously be adapted for people with reduced mobility (PRM), and all the sports fields will be equipped with innovative technologies – starting with the gymnasium built on a glass floor, equipped with diodes to illuminate the boundaries of the field according to needs and disciplines, particularly suitable for people suffering from cognitive or visual disorders. With the aim of training 250 sports or health professionals, an amphitheater will also be built at the heart of the Institute, while the best medical and technological devices will make it possible to centralize data on good practices in parasport and innovations in the field, and to advance research on the subject.
“They never let me go again”
“It’s a huge project, for which I had to knock on many doors. It wasn’t always easy, but I didn’t give up,” emphasizes François Genêt, who managed to raise 55 million euros from public and private stakeholders to finance his institute in Les Mureaux, and “multiply by twelve” the work already started in Garches. The professor knows that he has come a long way. Just a few years ago, sports practice was not a priority in the care of patients with disabilities. “In Garches, we took care of almost everything: the autonomy of patients with disabilities, the adjustments to their homes, their driving licenses, the return to their professional activity, and even their sleep problems! But not really sport, even though it is one of the primary prevention strategies against obesity, diabetes, chronic diseases or heart problems,” he recalls.
In 2019, François Genêt decided to present to his university dean a project for a specialized service on access to disabled sports, hosted by the Garches hospital. The latter accepted, and even pushed the professor to go further: the project of a specialized institute was born, which was quickly presented to the Interministerial Delegation of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, then chaired by Jean Castex. “We had to obtain authorizations, funding, publicize our project, but we did it”, rejoices the professor, while the first stone of the ISPC was laid on July 23 in Les Mureaux, during the passage of the Olympic flame in the Yvelines. In the meantime, many patients have already benefited from the multidisciplinary care of his team, like Claire Ghiringhelli, Swiss para-rowing athlete.
At the age of 39, this aeronautical materials engineer, very athletic and mother of three children, learned that she had to be operated on for a thoracic tumor at the level of the spinal cord. The operation, which saved her life, also left her an incomplete paraplegic. “I stayed ten months in the hospital, with a lot of rehabilitation. But returning home and to daily life was quite difficult, I had to start all over again from scratch,” she told L’Express. After nearly a year of treatment, the mother had an “overdose of doctors” and decided to stop her consultations and taking medication. In 2020, she was seen in Garches, and the medical staff decided to hospitalize her for a week as an emergency. It was on this occasion that she was put in contact with Professor Genêt and his team. “I went into a room, and around thirty specialists were waiting for me. They went over everything from the beginning, on support, medication, sport. And they never let me go again,” says Claire Ghiringhelli.
“They took the time to listen to me”
While the thirty-year-old discovered a new passion for rowing, Professor Genêt supported her in her project, putting her in touch with various specialists, including an orthotist who would see her arrive at his premises with her six-metre-long boat. “We worked on all aspects of my life: my psychological health, the data that could be recovered by measuring my sporting activity, the work that could be done with biomechanical engineers, occupational therapists, prosthetists, etc.,” says the athlete. While the first general practitioners she consulted refused to sign a simple medical certificate allowing her to practice a sporting activity, the contrast with the ISCP is striking. “There, I found a place where they took the time to listen to me, to guide me, to make me responsible for sport, nutrition, in a very professional manner. It was unexpected, and it did me a lot of good,” she breathes.
Like her, many other para-athletes or anonymous athletes have passed through the walls of the ISPC: Gaëlle Edon, vice-president of the Institute, was for example supported in her sporting practice of shooting. Crowned vice-world champion in 10 m Pistol P2 in Peru, in 2023, she will participate in her first Paralympic Games with the French team this summer of 2024. “I was also struck by this little boy who had his leg amputated and who we managed to interest in different sports, or by this patient who started para-tennis even though he had never touched a racket. He even encouraged his local club to adapt to PRMs, and 10 paraplegics now play in this club”, says Professor Genêt.
As technological innovations and artificial intelligence develop, the specialist is confident about the possibility of offering sports activities that are increasingly adapted to people with disabilities. “Today, we are able to have patients walk in a 3D room, where they virtually test their abilities on the snow, in the forest, with very precise data feedback on their experience, their physical feelings, possible improvements in technological terms… Ten years ago, it was unimaginable to achieve such precision,” he emphasizes. So many advances that the professor is eager to highlight, thanks to these Paralympic Games and the inauguration of his institute, with one certainty in mind: “When we succeed in moving the lines for an individual, we know that we are opening a new horizon for hundreds of patients after them. The lines are finally moving, and we must seize this opportunity.”
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