Para-tennis champion Charlotte Fairbank hopes to shine at the Paris 2024 Games

Théo Curin, vice world champion in Paralympic swimming, takes us every week behind the scenes of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, with the athletes in full preparation and with the organizing committee. This week we head to the training center of the French Tennis Federation, Porte Molitor, right next to Roland-Garros. This is where Charlotte Fairbank trains.

At 32, after the round of 16 in Tokyo, the French number 3 is aiming for qualification and a medal at the Paris Paralympics: “The deadline is approaching very fast. I know I will be ready. Tokyo, it was my first edition of the Games, a bit stressful. There, at home, you only see it once. If I can find a medal, I will be super happy It would be a dream come true.”

A common federation

Having begun her professional tennis career at the age of 24, Charlotte never imagined she would defend her country’s colors, much less for the Olympic and Paralympic Games and still less in Paris. You put aside a career as a lawyer that you already had a good start. She therefore fully experiences this atypical journey.

A single federation brings together Olympic tennis and Paralympic tennis. This joint work is, for Charlotte Fairbank, a real strength: “Yes, I say it without hesitation. We train alongside able-bodied players who are among the best in the world, it’s very stimulating. And at an international level we try to professionalize the Para-tennis circuits, to have visibility on an equal basis”.