Paralympics: On course with the canoe
The 2024 Paralympics will take place in Paris from 28 August to 8 September. For the participating athletes, this is both a great honour and a challenge. Abel Aber, France's most successful para-athlete in the canoeing discipline, has one big goal: to win the gold medal at the Paralympics.
With sporting ambition, a lot of discipline and hard training, Frenchman Abel Aber made it to the very top of para-sport in the ‘canoeing sprint’ discipline. He is now one of the top eight in the world and ranks number one in France.
The path to this achievement was not easy for him. After a scooter accident in 2003, he struggled to accept his unilateral femoral amputation. Thanks to a friend, he found new fulfilment in boxing and found his way back to a life on two legs. Equipped with a transfemoral prosthesis, he completed several coaching courses and even competed in classic boxing against amateurs without a prosthesis in 2018. But boxing wasn’t the end of his journey. As the sport is not a Paralympic discipline, he decided to pursue the para-discipline ‘canoeing sprint’ professionally in 2020. From 6 September, the athletes in this discipline will compete against each other in Paris and then it will be revealed whether Abel Aber's dream of a gold medal will come true.
More information about Abel Aber:
In the video , the Frenchman shares how he discovered the sport and how it has positively changed his life.
In the interview, Abel Aber talks about his sporting goals and how his prosthetist once helped him to overcome his trauma. You can find the full interview with Abel Aber in the current issue of HowToTreat published by ORTHOPÄDIE TECHNIK.
