Often placed, never medaled, Tanguy de La Forest has finally warded off fate, rejoiced Gilles Muller, national technical director (DTN) of the French Shooting Federation, on Friday, August 30. For his sixth participation in the Games, the leader of the French para shooting team won his first Paralympic medal, silver in the 10m rifle shooting event, at the National Shooting Center (CNTS) in Châteauroux.
This feat was therefore accomplished twenty-four years after his first Paralympic meeting, in Athens, in 2000. The Breton, originally from Rennes, has gained strength over the years, to the point of becoming five times world champion in the discipline.
“This shows that you have to work hard and keep believing in it, commented Tanguy de La Forest in the mixed zone after the medal ceremony. It’s a sport of experience, of confidence, you need a steely mind. It was hard not to win a medal for so long, but I proved that with perseverance, you can do it.”
On Friday, the French shooter was carried by a warm and colorful crowd, who loudly supported him throughout the day. “The atmosphere was crazy, he emphasizes. In the end, it exploded and it was wonderful. Days like that, I want more.” Leading for a long time in the final, he came very close to winning the gold medal.
“It really came down to nothing”reckons, her eyes still moist, her teammate Justine Bève, 27, also a rifle shooting specialist in the French para shooting team. After leading the race for a long time, the Breton finished just two tenths behind the Slovenian Francek Gorazd Tirsek, who, after a bad start, came back from the devil Vauvert to beat his competitors on the wire and win his first Olympic title, at 49, after collecting second places at the London, Rio and Tokyo Games.
Business leader
Aged 46, Tanguy de La Forest suffers from a genetic neuromuscular disease, infantile spinal muscular atrophy, similar to myopathy, diagnosed at the age of 3. His muscles are so weak that he cannot lift a bottle of water. He moves around in an electric wheelchair, which he controls with a joystick. He can also write and drive a car.
His disability does not prevent him from having an extremely active life. The Breton is at the head of two companies. With his brother Arnaud, he took over fourteen years ago the family business created by their father, which distributes promotional items to companies and employs fourteen people, in Rennes and Paris. With his sister Patricia, he also launched, in 2006, a recruitment agency specializing in workers with disabilities.
Since 2017, he has also been Secretary General of the French Paralympic and Sports Committee (CPSF) and, as such, is a member of the Board of Directors of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games Organising Committee. “In the end, there are very few things that are impossible for me, he explains, his eyes laughing. I was born with a disability, but I managed to turn it into a strength.”
His vocation as a sports shooter came about during a rifle shooting competition he won at the age of 7 at a fair. “I was immediately hooked, he remembers. The fact that I won despite my handicap certainly played a part… So it was this sport that chose me as much as I chose it!”
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Not having the strength to carry his rifle, he uses a Belgian gallows, a support with a spring allowing the weight of the rifle to be carried but not held. “As my disease is progressive, I have to train a lot, but not too much, because otherwise I get exhausted and the disease can gain ground, he confides. Over the years, I think I have found the right balance.”
Christian faith
Coming from a practicing Catholic family, Tanguy de La Forest claims his Christian faith. “It’s something important to me, he insists. I sometimes ask God to give me confidence. I always think of him when I’m competing.” In the French para-shooting team since 2017, he is a discreet leader, sparing with his words, but attentive to others, and does not hesitate to use humor to get his messages across..
“Tanguy is often where you don’t expect him. With his subtle remarks, he can catch his interlocutors off guard, observes Gilles Muller, the federation’s DTN. He has an inalienable faith in the human being. He puts such commitment into everything he does every day that he is an example for the younger ones.”
Tanguy de La Forest will be back on the Châteauroux shooting range on Sunday for the 10m rifle prone shooting event, with Pierre Guillaume-Sage, 24, the youngest member of the French team. Before that, on Saturday, another member of the French squad, his partner Gaëlle Edon, will take part in the 10m pistol shooting event.