Rowing: eight years after his accident, Antoine Jesel forgives the driver who made him disabled

Upon entering the George Inn pub, a stone's throw from London Bridge, Antoine Jesel, in his early thirties, is apprehensive like never before.

It is still summer at the beginning of September 2012 in the British capital, and the rower of the France Paralympic team, which has finished his Olympic Games, still has a few days ahead of him before returning to France.

Since the time he has been waiting for this meeting ...

In the room all of varnished wood, he finds Martin

(Editor's note: the first name has been changed)

, an Englishman: “It was the first time that I saw him, says the licensee of Rowing Marne Joinville, where he benefits from '' a post developed for four years in the digital communication department.

I wasn't sure what to expect.

I had a hard time calling her to have this meeting.

I wanted and afraid at the same time to run into a bad guy with whom I could have come to blows ... I saw a man a little older, with a sorry face.

"

"I flew 15 m passing between a billboard and a traffic light"

The same one who cut him off at a crossroads on July 3, 2004 in Montpellier, before being guilty of a hit-and-run.

The one who made him a physically different man, with a blocked left ankle, seven centimeters of femur and two less tibia, for whom genuflection has become almost impossible.

But with a morale of steel, which allowed him to win two medals at the World Para-rowing and in Europe, where he had a new silver medal this Sunday, in Varese (Italy).

Sports weekend, smiles on your lips!

😁

Congratulations to the para rowing collective for their medals at the European Championships!

Revealed by the # LaRelève program, Erika Sauzeau experienced her first European podium with the @FFAviron.

That's the beautiful story of this Sunday 🤩 pic.twitter.com/RDoccpC8tz

- France Paralympic (@FRAparalympic) April 11, 2021

Antoine Jesel, who will turn 40 in October, first did athletics and sailing before turning to rowing near Avignon, where his parents settled after returning from Niger ( where he was born) with the rest of the family.

Titled in the French Junior Championship, he rubs shoulders with the national team but, attracted by fiction, ultimately prefers to orient himself in a professional cinematographic career: “I was a cameraman, assistant director, I moved a lot.

I tried to resume after the accident but it was difficult to stand with my handicap.

He has since turned to editing.

Antoine Jesel (left), and his teammates during the 2020 European Championships, in Poznan (Poland).

FFA / Eric Marie

It is on returning from a shoot in Prague that Antoine's life changes.

While he has just recovered his motorbike, he goes green when a motorist cuts off the right of way: “I did not expect him to start.

He grabbed my ankle with his bumper, I flew fifteen meters passing between a billboard and a traffic light.

»Victim of a head trauma, he sees himself bleeding and falls into a coma.

The emergencies announced to his parents a probable amputation.

For fifteen hours, a young intern struggles and finally saves his leg.

A long ordeal - six months in bed - begins for Antoine.

His foot is necrotic, but fortunately the skin graft is working well: “The hardest part was staying lying down all this time.

I felt like I was a goldfish in a bowl as the world revolved around me.

This kind of experience teaches a lot to adapt to situations like no other, like confinement last year.

"

Antoine Jesel (foreground) with his teammates in coxless mixed foursome at the Europe 2020 in Poznan (Poland).

FFA / Eric Marie

After a year of rehabilitation, his real challenge is to walk again.

It takes him two more years, and two more to get back into a boat.

“I had to do it for the sensations, but I didn't think I was performing.

And, then, a former opponent who became a coach invited me to a training camp to improve myself.

“Antoine gave everything he had and joined the four-point team with a mixed leg-trunk-arm coxswain of the French team, with whom he participated in his first Olympiad in England in 2012. The country of origin of the one by whom it all happened.

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“He had never given me any news.

Me, I needed to understand his gesture which I considered almost murderous.

As soon as I knew I would go there, I found his name in the minutes.

I called him, he didn't answer and I didn't leave a message.

I finally wrote to him slipping two places for each of my races.

I learned from a volunteer, who had seen him on social media, that he had come.

"

"Nothing is closed, that's what this story taught me"

At the George Inn, tongues are loosened after a few beers: “Martin explained to me that he was on vacation and that he was late for the airport on July 3rd.

He was unfamiliar with driving on the right and had made a U-turn after the accident, then got stuck in traffic before being pulled over by the police.

As he did not speak French, he had difficulty making himself understood.

He said he was extremely shocked when he found out he had destroyed me.

He then did not dare to contact me.

I would have acted differently, but we have to accept that we are not all the same.

I wanted him to assume to end this story.

It was my personal revenge, except that after this meeting, I had lost my outlet.

I no longer had anyone to blame.

"

The two men find a lot in common, especially in terms of musical tastes.

We would like to be able to say that a form of friendship was born from this redemption.

But this is not the case.

The two protagonists subsequently exchanged a few emails, but it has been a long time since they have been in contact.

"I know his approach, he considers that he does not want to disturb me.

I know, however, that things are not set in stone.

Nothing is closed, that's what this story taught me.

Antoine Jesel has also drawn a documentary of 52 minutes.

"My psychotherapy," he breathes to finish.