CRS within the Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire company, Nicolas had his left leg amputated following a serious road accident. This “penalty of life”, he made a strength. At 37, he dreams of gold at the next Paralympiads.
“Exceeding oneself”: it is in this category that Nicolas was rewarded by the Police Mutual on March 10th. A “commitment medal” he received for his illustration in precision shooting and the pursuit of a career after a serious motorcycle accident which caused him to lose part of his left leg. “I’m not Captain America or Iron Man, I don’t want this hero role. I’m just a police officer who wants to continue serving his country”. But before arriving at this state of mind, the path was long.
Nicolas arrived at the Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire company in 2016. Originally from Angers, it was the proximity to his hometown that convinced him to come and settle in Indre- and Loire. He was then 31 years old.
On July 9, 2018, around 3:30 p.m., as he was coming out of a precision shooting session, a car cut him off near Varenne-sur-Loire, in Maine-et-Loire. “I went over the car and found myself ten meters further. I managed to take off my helmet without looking too much at my condition to avoid going into a state of shock”. If that had been the case, he thinks he would not have been able to make real decisions to ensure his survival. And when the driver got out of her vehicle to come to her aid, “I was only crying for fear of never seeing my newborn son again”.
Very quickly, I realized that my life would never be the same after this accident.
Nicolas, CRS in Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire
Luckily, a nurse from the Saumur hospital, who was driving the car behind, was able to help him before help arrived. Once there, firefighters set up large tarps to prevent it from being exposed to the public. “I had managed to sit up to protect my vital organs and try to survive. I really think that my vital prognosis was more or less engaged at that time”. In an emergency, he is transported by the SAMU.
At the hospital, the surgeon in the orthopedic department told him that he risked walking with a cane until the end of his days, that he might limp and that he might no longer be able to run. The operations are linked, without effect and at the cost of “extraordinary pain” until the verdict falls: it will be necessary to amputate his left leg at the level of the tibia. “I was half-aware of what was going on. But according to the doctor, I would have answered ‘I always dreamed of being a pirate’. I was living pretty well” he laughs on the other end of the line. As he says, “better a good prosthesis than a bad leg”.
The months of July and August 2018, Nicolas will spend them in rehabilitation, learning to live “in a new world, that of disability”. A period facilitated by his physical condition since before his accident, the CRS practiced bodybuilding, running, swimming and French boxing. When he tells his story, he does not appear to be impacted from a moral point of view, as if he had immediately accepted this handicap for life. However, one question haunts him: that of his career. “On this, the CRS did an extraordinary job by giving me the opportunity to practice. Not under the same conditions of course, but today I discovered a passion for precision shooting”.
There were doubts about my ability to resume and carry out my mission on a daily basis, now I want to be a vector of positivity and possibility
Nicolas, CRS in Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire
In the street, Nicolas is not afraid to show his prosthesis. “I do pedagogy when the children show me the finger. I tell them that I had a big sore and that to fix it, the doctors put a robot leg”. In the weight rooms, he confides that people find it hard to believe that one can do so much sport in these conditions.
But for the family of the thirties, accepting the handicap was complicated during the first times. “Regarding my wife, it was necessary to go beyond the way people look at life as a couple”. For him, his biggest dream was to be able to walk and take care of his children. His 4-year-old son, born shortly before the accident, but also his 3-year-old daughter, who never saw him when he was still valid.
Over the years, CRS has even forgiven the person who knocked it down. “I meet her from time to time to offer her a coffee and a croissant” he laughs. “She keeps telling me she’s lucky to have bumped into me. She’s a lady who was traumatized by the accident and the fact that I’m still standing physically and psychologically, that has helped to overcome this ordeal”. Despite his daze at the time of the accident, he still remembers how this person knelt in front of him so that he rested his head on his legs. “I can almost say she’s a friend and I think we’ll always be a bit of a bond.”
Today, Nicolas gives lectures to the support mission for the wounded of the National Police. “I animate through testimony a time of reconstruction through sport. These are people who are injured, physically or psychologically on assignment with the police. And to these people, he tells them about his next goal: the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games in which he would like to participate with the French team. He trains for this for 1h30 five times a week at his workplace but also at home before passing the selections at the Center National de Tir Sportif de Châteauroux in the course of 2024. Nothing therefore seems to stop the one who has just dealt with “a penalty of life”.
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