Supporting young disabled athletes

Dear Difter-euse-s,

If our page is a little less populated with news at the moment, it's for an excellent reason: we're in full swing preparing for the year ahead!

All our energy is currently focused on two crucial phases:

The implementation of our new "Jeunes Talents 2026" project: we're structuring the support arrangements to ensure that our support for athletes is even more effective and personalized next year. Receiving athletes' applications: we are receiving and will study with the utmost care the files of athletes wishing to join the next promotion.

This is an intense period of selection and organization, essential to guarantee the success of our future actions.

Our program aims to be a genuine tremplin for sporting talent with strong potential for access to the highest level (objectives Winter Games 2026, Paralympic Games 2028 and 2032).

Our action is based on two main objectives:

Financial support: Helping high-potential young people finance their sporting careers (studies, internships, training, equipment, adapted materials, competitions) so they can reach their highest levels. Securing the Double-Project: Enabling them to serenely pursue their sporting career while building their professional future (studies or training)

140 €1,000 scholarships already paid out since 2020

More than 100 medals won in national and international competitions, including 1 at the JOP 2024!!!

6 young people who have joined INSEP at the start of the 2026 academic year to give themselves every chance of the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028

These results would not have been possible without your commitment.

We thank you for your support and look forward to seeing you very soon to present the first winners of the "Jeunes Talents 2026" program!

Sportingly,

The Génération Avant Garde team

Dear difteur-ses,

We are proud because, on the occasion of the French Handisport Swimming Championships 50-meter Basin, in Aix-en-Provence, our Young Talents, Emma Pascot and Chams Rochdi achieved great performances.

Emma, despite an injury and several weeks without training, distinguished herself by her fighting spirit throughout the competition:

🥇 French Champion: 50 m freestyle

🥇 French Champion: 100 m butterfly

🥇 French Champion: 200 m medley

🥈 French Vice-Champion: 100 m freestyle

Chams, also entered in several events, showed the full extent of her talent with a very fine list of honors:

🥇 Gold medal: 100 m freestyle

🥇 Gold medal: 400 m freestyle

🥈 Silver medal: 100 m backstroke

🥈 Silver medal: 50 m freestyle

🥈 Silver medal: 200 m medley

Bravo to both of you for these results!

&especially thanks to you for your support enabling them to take part in these competitions!

Dear Difteur-ses,

Several Young Talents took part in this international competition at Stade Charletty

They gave their best and we are proud to share their results with you:

Cloé signs a personal best over 200m in 28"38! Returning from injury, she jumped 4m38 in the long jump.

Maïa strings together a string of fine races, finishing 2nd in 15"67 in the 100m and 32"48 in the 200m.

Milo solid with 25"20 in the 200m and a leap to 6m38 in the long jump that offers her 3rd place.

Emilien beats his personal best in the long jump with a leap to 5m76.

Samy finishes 5th in his category over 100m with a time of 11"97.

A big thank you for your support!

Dear Difteur-ses,

Today we'd like to introduce you to Célia!

Célia Terki is a para-athlete we've been supporting since 2021 to reach the highest levels in sprinting.

Suffering from macular degeneration, she learned at the age of 9 that she would lose her sight as the years went by, eventually becoming completely blind.

Sport was a vector of hope after her illness was announced. It fosters her self-confidence and enables her to be resilient in the face of this handicap that still needs to be tamed, as her eyesight is gradually diminishing.

Originally from Lyon, she had joined the Pôle Handisport in Gironde and then US Talence. This year, she was lucky enough to join the INSEP in Paris, a public institution that supports top-level sportsmen and women.

A big change in life for this lover of nature and the sea! But she knows that at INSEP everything is done to provide her with the best physical and mental preparation and enable her to achieve her goals: the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics!

A big THANK YOU for your support!

Dear Difteur-ses,

For the first time, thanks to individual donors and corporate sponsors, we will be financing a sports prosthesis for 11-year-old Martin, born with a birth defect.

Thanks to loans of racing blades, he has been able to demonstrate his motivation to run and take part in competitions.

Until now, due to the cost of prostheses and the need to change according to growth, we could only support adult amputees. It seemed essential to us to encourage inclusion from their earliest years.

Thanks to the organization of two charity events, Martin will receive his prosthesis at the end of May.

We'll keep you posted ... and send you photos of the official handover of the prosthesis!"

A great thank you to you for your support!

Dear difteur-ses,

Milo, 18, is a young para-athlete. An amputee after an agricultural accident on the family farm, he played rugby before this event and remains passionate about the sport.

Thanks to our partner UBB, he had the opportunity to join the players for a training session at the Ceva Santé center in Bègles. 💙🏉

Partners are real allies at our side to help boost the career paths of these young people.

And a grateful thank you to you for your support!

Dear donors,

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who contributed to the funding of Pierre's rugby chair! Thanks to your generosity and unwavering support, Pierre will be able to live out his passion for armchair rugby 100% with Equipe de France! 🏈

This human adventure reminds us once again that united we stand.

Together, we've proved that solidarity can move mountains and make accessible what seemed out of reach.

However, it's important to emphasize that the wheelchairs essential to the practice of handisport represent a considerable investment. Their high cost remains a major barrier to access to sport for all.

Let's continue to mobilize so that sport is accessible to all!

🙏 Once again, THANK YOU for Pierre and for all the other disabled athletes who dream of living their passion.

Dear difteurs,

New personal best for our Jeune Talent Tanguy Cassen Mazé, who finished the 1500 m in 4'49"47 during the regional Master Athlé indoor championship in Bordeaux last Sunday!!

A big thank you to you for your precious support and donations ✨

Dear supporters,

Thanks to your generosity, our young talents were able to take part last week in the X-athletics meeting in Aubière and measure themselves against international athletes.

Their performances are exceptional and testify to their potential ✨

🌟 Milo (18, tibial amputee paraathlete): he achieved a personal best in the 60m (8'17) and 200m (25'38), and jumped 6.09m in the long jump.

🌟 Emilien (18, femoral amputee parathlete): he also beat his personal best in the 200m (27'41).

🌟 Maïa (17 years old, paraplegic athlete): she achieved personal bests in the 60m (9'70) and 200m (31'85).

These results are the fruit of hard work and support like yours, which enables them to surpass themselves and aim ever higher.

Your difts have a direct impact on their sporting journey and enable them to progress towards their goals!

Together, we turn dreams into reality!

Dear difteurs,

On November 12 took place the 2nd open handisport day in table tennis

Clément, 17, with spastic diplegia from birth, finishes 2nd in the standing category 🥈

Hugo, 17, paraplegic from birth as a result of Larsen syndrome, finished 2nd in the seated category 🥈

Pablo, 18, hemiplegic from birth, finished 3rd in the standing category 🥉

Alexis, 17, a carrier of a genetic bone disease, finished 2nd in the seated category 🥈

Bravo to our Young Talents, the training and efforts enable them to gain in level!

Charres difteurs,

Jeune Talent de Génération Avant Garde, Pierrot Gagliano, 24, from Hourtin, has just won the individual para-surfing world championship, which took place in Huntington in the USA at the beginning of November. He is also world champion with Equipe de France for the 2nd year running.

"Affected by a degenerative disease since birth (blind right eye and left eye with 10% visual acuity), I have fought a lifelong battle against my difficulties. It was through learning to skateboard, snowboard and finally surf that I managed to find myself and turn my disability into a strength, expressing all my determination and creativity on a board."

From accident to French team in one year, Pierre's incredible journey! 
After suffering a terrible accident in 2021, which left him an amputee, Pierre bounced back by discovering armchair rugby in 2022. 
Today, he's selected for the French team! 🏆 
But to shine on international fields, he needs an adapted wheelchair. Thanks to your support, we'll be able to give him the essential tool to realize his dreams and become a champion.🧑‍🦽 
The Carrefour Foundation has helped us with Dift to buy his chair, but we're still short of part of the funding. 
 

It's his secret weapon, his work tool. It's what allows him to express all his talent on the pitch. But to perform at the highest level, he needs a tailor-made chair.
The chair will also be made available to his sports club, Aingirak Euskaldi, for disability awareness initiatives.
 
Thank you for helping us provide him with the means to proudly represent France at upcoming competitions. 

🏈 Pierre's next match is on November 21 against Ireland! 

We're proud because Manon Genest, a para-athlete specializing in the long jump, won a bronze medal at the Paralympic Games on Sunday evening.
Supported in 2023 by our  "Jeune Talent" project to finance her internships and international competitions, our help enabled her to evolve and reach her best levels, which she was able to realize at the JOP.
Manon is also a young mother who has succeeded in reconciling family life, professional life and top-level sport, despite all the constraints that this entails.
#ExceedingYourself #RealizingYourDreams #OlympicChampion

Pierre Botte is 25 and lives in Bidart. He was amputated following a road accident in 2021. A keen sportsman, he used to play rugby and pelota. He returned to rugby, but in a wheelchair. He now needs a new chair to practice in better conditions and achieve better performances. 
Our mission today is to find funding from private donors or companies to finance this chair and enable him to continue his journey.
Your supporters are helping to buy this chair, thank you!!

Our young talents shone at the French Championships on July 13 and 14 in Albi. Bronze medals for Cloé and Milo in the 200m, for Kerrian in the 400m and for Tanguy in the 1500m. A French vice-champion title in the high jump for Emilien.

 

And some fine personal bests: 

Our young medal-winning talents 

Champion at the European Youth Games in 2022 in the long jump and 2nd in the 100m
2nd in the long jump, 60m and shot put at the French indoor championships 2023
2nd in the 200m at the French indoor championships in 2024
She will take part this weekend in the French Championships in Albi to try to achieve the minimum requirements for the JOP 2024
Discover her in pictures!

We were lucky enough to have several of our talents carry the Olympic flame: Emilien, Lou, Maïa, Pablo, Manon, Cloé and soon on July 20 in Fontainebleau it will be modern pentathlon champion Jessye's turn.