Many conferences that I watched to prepare this one
started with a question, and that’s usually what interests me.
As this is my first lecture, I will take inspiration from what I saw
and I will start by asking you a question:
What do you see ?
It’s easy, as a question, and at the same time, it’s a bit of a trap.
You see the person who is in front of you, who does not see you.
And who asks you what you see? There are many possible answers.
Exactly, you have someone in front of you who does not see you
and who is obliged to speak to you.
And you, who see me, you can not speak.
It’s pretty cool. For communication, it’s nice.
(Laughter)
After talking, I will talk about a subject that I master.
I will try to convey to you everything that can animate me.
I have many lives, I have many faces.
You who have read the program, you have taken a little advance.
You know that I am a physiotherapist, that I aspire to become a journalist
and that I am jumping rider in competition.
So, all those things, obviously, I’ll tell you about it,
I am going to speak to you about the rider, but first, how was this rider born?
In both senses of the word, of course, literal and metaphorical meaning.
Me, I was born in Bordeaux, of Moroccan parents.
As much to tell you that the difference, I know a radius.
I was already pretty well supplied.
And I am also born with a particularity,
I was delivered with a defect.
That is to say that genetically speaking, I was poorly programmed.
I had a genetic defect,
a small anomaly that has resulted in cancer, retinal cancer.
So that word is scary, scary. Cancer, a disease that kills people.
I was lucky.
After about a year and a half of care,
I came out with a little less vision.
By dint of a lot of love, a lot of chemo, a lot of surgery.
I was a 2 year old kid who had a visual remnant.
That’s the favorite word of doctors at the time: the visual remains.
In the eyes of law and medicine, I was blind.
But I saw it.
You see, it’s already the difference, something nice enough.
I saw it and for them, I was blind. What did I see?
Finally, I could not drive, I could not read.
So, I had to find another way to teach myself:
Braille.
By cons, I could always have the same landmarks as you, visually.
So, I could spot faces, shapes, colors.
I know what the sky looks like, what a lot of things look like.
I know what the world looks like, finally.
I had that chance.
And I had another chance, it’s to evolve in the same world as you.
That is to say, I joined a very classical school,
in which the only thing different,
it was the teacher who knew braille.
And who taught us, to other students and me,
had to learn to read.
And we did not have the technological means we have today.
So, I had to learn about big boards,
with typewriters that are quite sturdy and make a lot of noise.
So, we did not go unnoticed.
But once the classes are over,
in the playground, we were like everyone else.
We were these kids playing the marbles,
who make skipping rope, who play cat.
The plane trees were for us.
But no matter, there was the infirmary for that.
As for all others.
That’s it, it was enough not to hurt too much and to leave again.
And I’m not talking about it by chance.
I think that being put with everyone,
nobody asked the question,
and me neither at the time.
It was self-evident.
And it allowed me to measure myself against others, according to the same criteria.
So, certainly, my parents always taught me
that I would need a lot more time to do the same things.
And a lot more effort.
I would have to work 10 times, 15 times, 100 times more
to achieve the same results.
That’s what I did. That’s what I wanted to do.
That’s what I got, it’s my luggage.
And the day I wanted to go horseback riding,
where I dared to dream of competition and all that,
the work was finally the same.
And we managed to get what you have in front of you.
We managed to work in the same direction as the others.
When I started riding, I was a rider like any other.
It took me a while to find a club.
But finally, I did not have much different.
I was a beginner just as talented as the others.
And I had to be taught in the same way that we taught others.
With some additional indications, certainly, but I learned the same way.
There, I play with my watch because I do not see the timer.
So, I have a nice little watch, which vibrates.
And like that, look like nothing,
I can tell you that there is about 6 minutes left to listen to me.
Little parenthesis.
(Laughter)
And this learning that I did …
I was just a kid who wanted to occupy his Saturdays,
who hardly dared tell people he wanted to ride a horse.
And, remember, I could still see it.
And at one point, I had to move, look for another club.
And I came across someone …
I am told that I am sick of riding.
A blind man who goes on a stupid to jump bars
without looking where he is going. Voila…
I came across crazier than me. Her name is Tiffany.
She’s my coach for 10 years.
Upon my arrival, she told me:
“You, I will not let you go. And I will make you do the competition.
It’s your dream, you’ll do it. “
We worked for a long time.
She was just a student instructor at the time.
And I think we had the same dream.
We had this will to put us, both,
on the same measures as everyone else. On the same scale as anyone.
And this work, finally, it gave this:
it gave something that looks like what anyone does,
any jumper jumper.
I chained a course not long ago
on the Longines Masters of Paris. A big equestrian event.
And I did it under the sponsorship of Guillaume Canet.
The first time I met him …
That’s it, I’m only 25, I was still … I was embarrassed.
I say to myself, “He is interested in what I do! “
And I was fortunate to be supported by Olympic riders.
Just a medalist from Rio last summer.
I barely believed it.
What it showed me, finally,
what people have seen that day is a rider.
A rider who certainly does not see it.
Who needs people to guide him on the ground.
But finally: the faults are the same.
The technical contract, the same.
And the horse is not trained for.
I had some difficulties at the beginning of the round,
it has settled. Everyone saw what had happened.
Finally, I was judged in the same way as everyone else.
And that’s what really pleased me.
Finally, what do I draw as a lesson from all this?
The important thing is not the difference that is obvious.
There, at first sight, you see a blind man before you.
Do not be afraid of words, you see a blind man.
I think it’s a mistake to say I’m blind.
I’m a blind man, but I’m not that.
I do not think about it every morning.
Failed to say “looking at me in the mirror”, but it does not work …
I lost this visual remnant the 1st year I did the competition
and I continued.
I even felt liberated.
I was able to trust other little things.
Experiment, close your eyes
and you will see that your face is turning, in spite of everything,
where does the sound come from?
It’s the same for me in life.
It’s a runaway party finally.
To find your way around the city …
Imagine yourself: in Paris, in the Champs-Elysees,
someone who blindfolded you
and you say, “Hey, go ahead, find your way, we’re going to laugh. “
So that’s exactly it.
Finally, there is no insurmountable difficulty.
And there is no need to lock yourself in boxes.
Maybe that’s what never stopped me,
in my various lives, in my various passions.
Paralympic games were invented only in 1960.
And well before that,
there is a person who did not wait for him to be explained
that there would be a day competitions for people with disabilities.
George Eyser, an American, in 1904,
who won six medals in one day.
Three gold, two silver, one bronze.
In one day, for the United States. It’s a gymnast with a wooden leg.
Something nice enough.
I could have used it as an example.
But like all kids, I had other examples.
In addition, I could watch TV, I had a bowl.
So, like all kids, I had other models.
And a particular model, who is a hero. Who is a superhero.
Naming the man without fear.
Who is a lawyer the day, vigilante at night.
Who is Daredevil, whom you obviously know.
What Daredevil taught me is that, ultimately,
our barriers are only because they are allowed to be.
We can be both our biggest opponent
and our greatest ally.
The important thing is not to be his worst enemy,
not to do in spite of oneself but to do with oneself.
And from there, we can dream of everything.
We are not sure of getting there.
To stay on word games, I like word games.
I do not see where I’m going, but that does not stop me from going.
And I want to ask you now: what do you see?
Thank you.
(Applause)
I was not searched, entering, I reassure you.
It’s my cane, everything is fine.
But there is no chance either.
It does not come from a specialized store.
For the wink, I bought that in an armory.
Here, a blind man in an armory. It made him laugh a lot.
Because I wanted something nice for my cane.
And then, is not there a little nod to Daredevil?
I leave you free of imagination.
(Laughter)
(Applause)
”
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