Conference by Marie-Amélie Le Fur, Paralympic athlete, Director of the French Paralympic & Sports Committee

Passionate about athletics from an early age, Marie-Amélie was an amputee following a scooter accident in 2004.

Although this accident shattered her dream of becoming a professional firefighter, thanks to the support of those close to her, she has built herself a new life focused on sport.

Marie-Amélie took her first running steps just 4 months after the accident. A great sporting adventure then began:

• 2006 triple world runner-up in Assen (100m, 200m, long jump),
• 2008 double Paralympic runner-up in Beijing,
• 2011, double world champion in Christchurch,
• and 2012 triple medalist at the London Paralympic Games with the attainment of the supreme title: that of Paralympic 100m champion.

Marie-Amélie embarks on a new Paralympiad in Rio, in 2016. With two gold medals, two world records and a Bronze medal, the sporting balance sheet is more than full. After a necessary sporting break, Marie-Amélie Le Fur returned to competition in the summer of 2018: she became European champion in the long jump in Berlin, beating the world record. She became the first female amputee to break the 6m barrier (WR 6m01). Marie-Amélie LE FUR ended her sporting career in 2021, at the Tokyo Paralympics, with a silver medal in the Long Jump.

Alongside her sporting career, Marie-Amélie LE FUR has led a professional life at EDF since March 2013. Initially as a change management support, then in charge of territorial anchoring. Moreover, driven by a desire to promote and develop parasport in France, Marie-Amélie has been involved since 2010 in various associative actions to promote access to sport and inclusion for people with disabilities, starting in 2012. In particular, she became patron of the TELMAH endowment fund and the entr'aide association to promote access to sport for people with disabilities.

From 2015 to 2017, she joined the Paris 2024 Games bid as co-chair of the athletes' commission alongside Teddy Rinner. The culmination of her commitment to parasport, in December 2018, Marie Amélie le Fur took over from Emmanuelle Assmann as president of the French Paralympic and Sports Committee, with one ambition: to make access to sport a reality for all people with disabilities throughout France.

Marie Amélie le Fur is also a member of the French Paralympic Committee.

In 2024, she became president of the national sports agency at the suggestion of the Minister of Sport, Gil Averous.

Marie-Amélie LE FUR's lecture will focus on "Sport, a catalyst for change in our society".

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The Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France had already welcomed Marie-Amélie LE FUR at an event organized in collaboration with the Académie des Technologies.

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