After the Olympic Games, Paris is now looking forward to the Paralympics. The sitting volleyball team is the first to travel to the French capital. They are hoping to win a medal this year.
“#Road to Paris” is written on a large banner that the German team has put up on platform 8 at Cologne Central Station. It’s finally time to set off by train to Paris for the Paralympics. There’s a lot of excitement, after all, everyone has the impressive images of the Olympic Games in their heads.
“I would like to thank the French. They delivered something that was unique. And that naturally increases the anticipation, the excitement and the tingling sensation,” says a delighted Friedhelm Julius Beucher. The President of the German Disabled Sports Association (DBS) is accompanying the German sitting volleyball team on the train to Paris. Symbolically and on behalf of all the athletes of Team D, the travel group was bid farewell in Cologne on Sunday.
The captain of the sitting volleyball team is already an old hand. Jürgen Schrapp is taking part in the Paralympic Games for the seventh time. He is looking forward to the coming days with confidence: “We had an extremely successful year last year, runner-up in the European Championships and third in the World Cup. That ultimately got us our ticket to Paris, quite early on. I am very proud of that – and of how we have developed in three years and put ourselves in a position where we can really attack,” says Jürgen Schrapp.
With great expectations for Paris
The German Disabled Sports Association is travelling to France with great expectations. The disabled sports family also dreams of a magical sports festival in the French capital. “I am firmly convinced that the spark will jump from the Olympics to the Paralympics,” says Beucher. The aim is to be among the “ten best para-sport nations in the world” again. Beucher is “firmly convinced” that this will succeed.
Sitting volleyball is also challenging for spectators because it is very fast-paced. The players sit on the floor while they play the ball over the one-meter-high net. Heiko Wiesenthal says that sitting volleyball is one of the fastest ball sports there is. “It is technically very demanding, you have to move with your hands and play the ball at the same time. One of the most difficult ball sports in the world,” the player is convinced.
Anticipation increases every day
His teammate Francis Tonleu adds: “The balls are so fast. If you’re not careful for a millisecond, you’re out of luck.” When Tonleu is on the field, it’s “a moment full of positive energy” for him. The team’s anticipation of the Paralympics is growing day by day.
“The fire is of course always a highlight when it is lit. So that will be the first emotional situation. I think that’s when you really start to feel the desire to compete well,” says Heiko Wiesenthal. The man from Koblenz is taking part for the fourth time.
At the age of 20, he had a serious accident. In the German army, he was supposed to climb onto a tank that was on a railway carriage. “A spark jumped from the overhead line. 15,000 volts went into my head, flowed through my body and out of my leg. And my leg was so badly burned that it had to be amputated,” remembers Heiko Wiesenthal.
German sitting volleyball players have medal chances
After the amputation, he cried one night, but then he came to terms with the new situation and set himself new goals, “which I initially kept relatively small. I exceeded all of them and therefore never fell into a hole. And I actually finished it for myself within a few days,” says Wiesenthal.
Francis Tonleu grew up in Cameroon. At the age of nine, he was trying to pick a mango from a tree when the branch he was sitting on broke. “It happened so quickly, you can’t believe it. And then I fell to the ground. And there I was. And then there was dead silence.” Since then, his foot has been stiff. Sport has shaped both of them and brought them together. After coming away empty-handed at the last Paralympics in Tokyo, they are now hoping for Paris. The team may not be the favorite for gold, but the sitting volleyball players are definitely a candidate for a medal.
Strong substitute bench
“In the end, a lot depends on the form of the day. We prepare as well as we can. Our goal is to win one,” says national coach Christoph Herzog. He is convinced that this generation really has what it takes. “Because for the first time – and we haven’t had that in the last twelve years – we have a bench that can replace players one-to-one. Many teams can’t do that, except perhaps Iran, but after Iran no other team can. We are the strongest team that has a bench in the background where we can make substitutions and they can be just as effective,” is the hope of the national coach.
Wiesenthal certainly has his sights set on a medal. “Our goal is to reach the semi-finals so that we can play for the medals. But the level of performance is very high, even in the preliminary round. Elimination is certainly possible, but I think we have prepared very well.”
The first competitions begin on Thursday, the German sitting volleyball players start the Paralympic tournament on Friday.
