Tokyo 2021: Laurent Chardard, the French swimmer who survived a shark attack

Published on : 08/30/2021 – 11:07

Laurent Chardard entered the deep end on Monday August 30 at the Tokyo Paralympic Games. The 26-year-old French swimmer climbed to the final in the 50m butterfly (S6) where he finished just off the podium in fourth place.

However, it has only been a few years since the athlete discovered the world of disabled sport. Five years ago, he nearly lost his life in a terrible shark attack. An engineering student from Reunion Island, he was on vacation at home in August 2016 when the tragedy occurred. The young man is then bodyboarding in Boucan Canot, in the north-west of the island. “I got attacked by a shark”, he told Franceinfo. “I didn’t see him pick on me, just a gray-brown mass, typical of the Bulldog Shark, come in from below. I’m lucky to remember all of my accident and I know that I made the right choices so I don’t have a thousand questions about what happened. “

Anti-shark devices had yet been installed, but the animal managed to pass over the net. In this face to face, Laurent Chardard manages to keep his spirits and fights to survive: “At the time of the attack, the shark took my right arm and pulled me to the bottom. I retaliated by tapping it with my left hand, which cost me my thumb. They say you have to hit the gills but I have no idea where I hit it,

“The important thing is to accept things”

Help arrives quickly. The young surfer is alive, but his right arm and right ankle have been torn off. He must now learn to live without it. Long months of rehabilitation await him. Passionate about the ocean, Laurent Chardard naturally turns to water. “I continued the sport to get back on my feet and that helped me a lot. I came to swimming as I was very aquatic,” he said. at the Parasport Swimming site.

Swimming allows him to find calm and keep that serenity that characterizes him. “After my accident, I could very well have stayed in a phase of complaint and lament. I lost an arm and a leg, I am disabled, my life will never be like before. It is a reality. I do not wish to be defined by this handicap “, he summed up in an interview for Views. “The important thing is to accept things, difficult situations. We must try to use it to keep moving forward.” Success is quickly there. Laurent Chardard qualified for the Worlds, three years after his accident, in 2019 and won a title of vice-world champion in the 50m butterfly. He also recently competed in a distance competition with the top eight able-bodied swimmers on the planet.

Now nicknamed “Baby Shark” by his training partners, the swimmer does not put pressure on himself. For him, the important thing is above all to be present in Japan. “I’m going to Tokyo to have as much pleasure as possible, it’s not every day that we have the chance to go to Japan. Obviously I’m going to give everything, but whatever the medal, the place … If I’m already managing to improve my best times I’ll be happy, “he confided before leaving for the Paralympic Games.

After competing in the 50m butterfly, Laurent Chardard will be aligned on Wednesday in the 100m freestyle, then on Friday in the 100m backstroke.