A few months before the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris, it should have been time for the final small adjustments to try to get on the podium. In most team sports, France, as the host country, is already guaranteed to be there during the high mass of summer 2024. Its wheelchair basketball teams, however, will have to going through a perilous Paralympic qualifying tournament in April in Osaka, Japan, for women; in Antibes (Alpes-Maritimes) for men.
This extremely rare situation was brought to the attention of the French clan late. “It was in June 2022 that I was officially announced, by videoconference, that our teams were not qualified for the Gamessays Stéphane Binot, sports director of French wheelchair basketball. We continued to communicate with decision-makers for months, but we were unable to change anything. » This verdict is the result of long discussions between different authorities, whose roles are not always clearly defined.
It all started with the decision of the International Paralympic Committee to reduce the number of teams taking part in the Paralympic competition in Paris from twelve to eight. A measure taken “to be able to welcome and shed light on other disciplines”, supposes Mr. Binot. The committee therefore transmitted its directive to the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation, which had to rethink its selection system accordingly.
With only eight teams entered in the Paralympic Games, the federation therefore considered removing direct qualification for the host country, in the name of sporting fairness. According to information from World, she would have carried out a survey among other wheelchair basketball nations to get their opinion on this option. The results of this consultation – which were not made public and which France had to request – would have been of the order of 50% votes “for” and 50% “against”.
” Good luck “
The international federation has finally decided: there will be no “free pass” for the Blues. A hard blow for the para-athletes concerned, who saw, at the same time, their counterparts in wheelchair rugby and sitting volleyball directly qualified, despite also having an eight-team tournament.
Through its secretary general, Norbert Kucera, the federation affirms “completely understand” the disappointment of the French and wishes them ” good luck “ to validate their ticket. But the German leader also wants to point out: “The qualification system put in place following the surprising reduction in the number of teams at the Games has been accepted by the Paralympic Committee. » This system must “allow the best teams to qualify”, according to his terms. Mr. Kucera denies, moreover, the fact that the committee “recommended that the organizing country retain its automatic qualification” – information which had nevertheless been transmitted to us.
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