Para rowing: Benjamin Daviet's biggest challenge, five-time winter Paralympic champion

From August 30 to September 1, the Para rowing regattas of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games will take place on the brand new facilities of the Stade Nautique in Vaires-sur-Marne (Seine-et-Marne). It's an opportunity to see 104 rowers in action... like Benjamin Daviet, who has an astonishing and singular sporting career.

Sometimes it's in the unexpected that great stories are created. Benjamin Daviet, 35, has made this his credo for several months now. Until now, the Frenchman from Haute-Savoie has been known for his achievements in Para cross-country skiing and Para biathlon, at the Paralympic Games (five-time gold medallist between 2018 and 2022), the World Championships and on the World Cup circuit. As one of the leading figures in his chosen sport, the mountain dweller set himself a new challenge last autumn: to secure his ticket for Paris 2024 in Para rowing.

"In 2017, 100 days before the PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Games, we organised a meeting with alpine skiing and snowboarding in Aiguebelette. The French Paralympic and Sports Committee brought in Perle Bouge to introduce us to their discipline, which I really enjoyed. But I was fully focused on the Winter Games. After 2018, coach Charles Delval came back to me and I said no because I had my eyes on Beijing 2022 and wanted to go there, win medals and be a flag bearer. Every year, when I saw him, he'd put in a little extra effort. Finally, after the Beijing Games, where I'd achieved all my objectives, I needed to rebuild myself mentally and physically by doing something else. That's when I got into rowing", he explained at the start of July from Le Temple-sur-Lot (Lot-et-Garonne), where Les Bleus are staying before the most important competition of the year.

A busy schedule for several months

A year ago, despite being runner-up in the French single sculls' championship, Benjamin Daviet refuted the idea of taking part in the Paralympic showpiece. His argument at the time was simple: the French legends of the discipline Stéphane Tardieu and Perle Bouge were more legitimate than him in the hull of the French PR2 mixed double sculls. "It was clear and logical that they were going to try to qualify for the Games and I wasn't, the man from Le Grand-Bornand recalls. They'd been rowing together for years and I wasn't nearly as good at it! So I wasn't aiming to beat Stéphane [Tardieu] to get into the boat."

Originally, in the Bornandin's mind, rowing was just one element of his summer training on the road to the Milan-Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games. However, Stéphane Tardieu's (unexpected) decision to end his career after missing out on the World Championships changed everything in October 2023. He was officially offered a place in the French PR2 mixed double sculls alongside Perle Bouge.

"I agreed, Benjamin Daviet says. We embarked on this adventure with Perle [Bouge], trying to create a pairing to qualify the hull." It was then that the dual project of the French rower-skier began. Between training sessions on the water with his new teammate and Nordic Para ski competitions, Benjamin Daviet followed a methodical, very precise... and busy programme. "I told them that I had my winter season and that I couldn't put it aside, he continues. So we came to a compromise and, as the initial race in October went well, we set off on this adventure. I did all my training and competitions in the winter and, at the same time, I rowed at Joinville-le-Pont and Vaires-sur-Marne, the Games' site, where we met two and a half days per month with Perle [Bouge] to work together."

The first French athlete medallist at both the Winter and Summer Paralympic Games?

A schedule that didn't prevent him from shining on all fronts. Double world biathlon medallist in Prince George (Canada) in March, he returned home to prepare the Paralympic qualifying regatta in Lucerne (Switzerland), scheduled for May. "We went through a lot of phases before taking part in the European Championships in Szeged, Hungary, where we surprised everyone by going straight through to the final and finishing fourth despite making a lot of mistakes in the final, the young father of little Poema says. It was a blessing in disguise and enabled us to keep improving until we clinched that fine ticket for the Games in the qualifying regatta."

In good shape on the legendary Rotsee lake, the duo obtained their Paralympic quota on this occasion. Benjamin Daviet succeeded in validating what he likes to call "a completely crazy challenge"... but not so surprising when you look in the rear-view mirror. Norway's Birgit Skarstein and USA's Oksana Masters or Kendall Gretsch, for example, have already achieved the insane feat of taking part in the Winter Paralympic Games in Nordic skiing and the Summer Paralympic Games in rowing (the American added cycling to her list of achievements and won medals in both disciplines). "Rowing and cross-country skiing complement each other because they are two sliding sports that require a similar effort", he points out.

As for Benjamin Daviet's ambitions in a few weeks' time, with the Agitos bib on his back, they are clear: to climb the podium and become the first French athlete to win medals at both the Winter and Summer Paralympic Games. "It's a great motivation, of course, but I prefer not to focus on history. I'm just concentrating on my training to help the boat progress", he concludes.

What about the Para rowing rules?

Para rowing made its debut on the Paralympic Games' schedule in Beijing, China, in 2008. Back then, rowers competed for medals over a distance of 1,000 metres, compared with 2,000 metres since Tokyo 2020.

Three types of boat will be competing in a total of five events:

• men's and women's PR1 single sculls: the athlete is alone in the boat, with two oars
• PR2 and PR3 mixed double sculls: two athletes in the boat, each with two oars
• PR3 mixed coxed four: four athletes in the boat, with one oar each, and a coxswain, without an oar, responsible for steering the boat and defining race tactics

France has won five Para rowing medals at the Paralympic Games. Les Bleus only failed to reach the podium in 2008, for the inaugural edition of the discipline.