Ludivine Munos he was one of the greats of French swimming between 1993 and 2004, winning 12 Paralympic medals including 3 gold and 14 world medals.
At birth, her right arm and right leg were amputated, so she was noticed very early by her coach who accompanied her to her first competitions. Due to shoulder pain, she stopped swimming at the age of 24, then at the peak of her sports career.
She now works at EDF as Human Resources Director and has joined the 2024 Games Organizing Committee as Head of Integration. His goal: to change the way we look at Paralympic sports and see all tickets sold for 2024, while currently lack of adapted equipment and media visibility of athletes worry.
Student and Paralympic medal winner
Ludivine Munos had a career in Paralympic sports from 1996 to 2004. A painful question, explains what she experienced. At that time she was a student, she continued her studies until her master’s degree 2: “I mostly swam and worked, but I was lucky that I didn’t have to pay for my para-sports equipment, nor travel, nor competitions, so I didn’t lose money by playing sports. For the rest, my parents were there to help me. »
If, despite Ludivine Munos’ medals, she could not live on them then, today it is no longer the same : “Our Paralympic athletes, as we know them today, join teams where there are sponsors and partnerships. Often, young people who start in teams already have several medals around their necks. In my time, that was not the case. »
Share your experience
At the end of her sports career, Ludivine Munos wanted to live the life of a woman and a successful professional life. Until recently, she was at EDF and decided to move towards other horizons, especially sharing with children at school: “If a child, like me, crossed the path of a top Paralympian, there are many questions that would never have arisen in my home, neither for my parents, nor for the teachers at home. School, and even less for new clubs that readily welcomed me when I was a student. Today it is important for me to share my experience in order to open the door for others. »
Ludivine was pushed into the pool by the anger of a young girl who was born with this defect. During adolescence, the gender ratio changes. At college, it is the beginning of opening up to others and we realize that aesthetics is in symmetry. Me, I don’t have a right arm and a right leg, I had to find my place.
Giving visibility to Paralympic sport
At the last Olympic and Paralympic Games, 100 hours of live coverage on France TV was devoted to the Paralympic Games, compared to 700 hours for the Olympic Games. : “At the time of Atlanta, there was no media coverage. In France, we started with media coverage of the Games in Rio, where we started broadcasting the competitions. Today you can even follow the Winter Paralympic Games. There is still progress to be made in terms of viewing hours, but we also need to have an audience, and spotlighting the Paralympic athletes can allow us to have more viewers. »
In high-level sport, we celebrate peak performance, but there are bodies that cannot achieve that performance. For Ludivine Munos: ” Maximum performance also exists with a physical difference. Imagine if an accident happened tomorrow in your daily life and you found yourself permanently or temporarily disabled. Handisport also shows you that it doesn’t stop me from living, doing sports and above all, it doesn’t stop me from still being talented and doing well. »
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Sport spirit
