DIARY OF AN ATHLETE

Written by Trackandmemes, on 25 June 2023

Dimitri Jozwicki, a Paralympic athlete and part-time occupational therapist, recently beat her personal best in the 100m with a performance in 11’’ 00.

He thus retains his French championship title.

In this article, as well as revealing his sporting ambitions, Dimitri will give us plenty of details about what it's like to be a Paralympic athlete in the world of athletics.

Is this record your first win of the season?

No. I clocked 11'' 05 a few weeks ago in Notteville, Switzerland, where I beat the reigning Paralympic champion. Before that race, I'd already clocked a personal best of 11'' 21 at the start of the season.

How do you see the rest of the outdoor season?

At the moment, I'd like to break the 11-second barrier, which would allow me to feel more comfortable with the idea of winning a place on the podium at the World Championships in Paris this summer.

I'm currently top of the world rankings, and I'd have to finish at least fourth at the world championships to hope for a place at the games.

Training shows that I am capable of running in 10’’ 90.But what really counts is not the result in training, but what comes out in competition. The training sessions are there to give me confidence, to tell me that I can do it.

What is your disability?

I have a tetraparesis. It is a partial paralysis of all four limbs, in the family of cerebral palsy (CP).

The PC are paralyses of cerebral origin, of the central nervous system. This disability is different from that of people with spinal cord injuries, i.e. paraplegics and tetraplegics.

In my case, we'd call it paraparesis or tetraparesis, as my paralysis is partial.

It's often due to head trauma or stroke in adults, and it can also be congenital, as in my case.

But this can also be the case for premature babies or those born with the cord around their neck. A lack of oxygen to the brain from birth can cause irreversible brain damage. This is my case. Except for one detail... I have what is known as tetraparesis. slender. This means that it is not highly visible, although it is located on all four limbs.

In running, this will lead to a limitation in joint amplitude linked to what is known as the spasticity (involuntary muscle stiffness).

So how do you manage to run so fast?

I'm lucky to have a lot of frequency and to be quite powerful. That makes up for it.

When I lift my knee, try to straighten my leg and extend it, I lose hip amplitude. It reduces the size of my strides. Muscularly, I'll start to tire more quickly. And as my fatigue is exponential, a 200m will be much more complicated for me to run. I think I could run a 400m, but it would be really difficult to perform well in that discipline!

And what about classifications?

In terms of classifications, in athletics we have the letters T and F. T for Track, and F for Field. Track for track racers, and Field for jumpers or throwers. In swimming, for example, we have the S of Swimming.

The letter is followed by a number. The tens digit determines the family of disability, and the units digit determines the degree of disability.

The first ten is for the disabled visuals. The second ten determines disabilities intellectuals, and the third ten, so the one that concerns me, is for the cerebral palsy.

Then we have the fourth ten or so; for people amputees or equivalent. We say assimilated because they may have brachial plexus paralysis and a slightly hanging arm. There's a risk that they'll be confused with people with BMI, like me, even though the symptomatology (all the symptoms of a pathology as well as the study of these symptoms) is not at all the same. Nor is the impact of disability on the discipline. We therefore consider assimilated people as amputees.

There is also a fifth ten, which is the injured medullary. And finally, the sixth ten, which identifies amputees legs or similar.

So there's a letter to identify the discipline we're talking about, a number to indicate the disability, and a unit that tells us the degree of disability. The higher the unit, the less severe the disability.

The aim of the classification is not to put all athletes on an equal footing, since it would almost be necessary to create a disability category for each athlete, since not everyone has exactly the same symptoms. But the aim of the classification is to assess the impact of the disability on the discipline practised.

What about disability awareness?

In France, this is a problem because it is weak or non-existent.

According to Dimitri, 3 to 5 out of every 100 disabled track and field athletes are in wheelchairs.

My disability is not visible at first glance. And yet, the main image conveyed about disability is the icon of a wheelchair.

For parking spaces, toilets and priority classes, the disabled person is represented by a wheelchair.

Generally speaking, we are often represented by a wheelchair, a prosthesis and a white cane, which conveys a false image of disability. People with much less visible disabilities are taken less seriously.

I have a motor disability, and sometimes when I say it, people don't take me seriously.

Thank goodness for the Paris Games.

It'll give us great visibility and a chance to express ourselves.

When you see a male amputee achieve a performance in 10''50, it's incredible. Especially if you know anything about athletics and the value of that performance. So the amputee you see in the street will no longer be seen as an athlete with a missing limb, but as someone capable of doing something impressive!

Marcus Rhem is an amputee, and he's 8 metres 62 in the long jump. He's an Olympic champion, and if he comes and jumps with the other able-bodied Olympic champions, it will give a different view of disability.

And what about other people's opinions?

I know it's not mean or malicious, but people often say to me "... I don't know what to say...".It's extraordinary what you're doing. Well done, guys."But I go to training because I like being an athlete, not for any glory. And the day I don't enjoy it any more, I stop. Like any able-bodied person. We're sometimes seen as heros, but at the end of the day, we train like able-bodied people.

Besides, I train with able-bodied people, and I don't feel like I'm making a superhuman effort.

I'm aware that what I'm doing is unusual, but I'm doing it for me.

So I know it's not malicious! But you get the feeling that people are not yet comfortable with disability.

Could you run with the able-bodied?

I've always run with able-bodied people. I have two licences, one for disabled sports and one for the FFA.

For a long time, I ran with able-bodied people who didn't even know I was a Paralympic athlete.

For me, being disabled doesn't define me. It's a strength that I bring to the fore to raise people's awareness, I am simply Dimitri. I'm not just PC, I'm Dimitri.