Corinne Jeanmaire recently met Thierry Schmitter, Endparalysis foundation’ ambassador, to inform him about the foundation’s progress and agree on joint actions. Thierry is paraplegic. He went through a lot of challenges, won quite a few medals and is, among others, the living proof that human beings can adapt to rather difficult conditions and make the best out of life. That being said, our champion fully supports our goal: accelerate research to cure chronic spinal cord injury, because he knows that some others, with less luck and/or a higher lesion, cannot sport at all and sometimes cannot even breathe on their own anymore. That’s all about living the present the best we can but looking beyond ourselves and contributing to a better future! Why would those two concepts (Care and Cure) be contradictory? Care (living and making the best of a life with spinal cord injury, or another condition) is actually compatible with Cure (supporting research in order to enable, on day, as soon as possible, functional recoveries and ultimately a cure for spinal cord injury). It should not be Care vs Cure, but Care and Cure just like the Ying comes along with the Yang.
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Thierry Schmitter was elected as Dutch Disabled Sportman of the year in 2011. He won a bronze medal in sailing Mixed 2.4mR at the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens. He came fifth in the same category in Sailing at the 2008 Games in Beijing and in 2012, he won his second bronze medal at the Paralympics of London.
He is now discovering a new extreem sport: sited kiteboarding. See more about Thierry’s current passion on his website: http://www.sitkite.com
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