Wheelchair fencing: A further adaptation of fencing to breast cancer cases

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In France, breast cancer currently affects one woman in eight – 54,000 new cases were detected in 2015. Among them, some women with motor disabilities as almost 100,000 women aged under 65 have to use wheelchairs. Numerous scientific studies have highlighted the positive effects of well-adapted physical activity after breast cancer surgery – it is shown to reduce fatigability, posture problems and the risk of recurrence, hence to foster a better quality of life. Several federations have adapted their sport to cancer patients; yet, most of those adaptations take no account of the possible presence of pre-existing motor problems. Solution RIPOSTE offers women with breast cancer an adapted practice of fencing, devoid of hits, which improves shoulder mobility thanks to the reflexive gesture of high parry commonly made in sabre fencing, and also corrects posture anomalies thanks to the shoulder opening required by the en garde position. Besides, the elegance of the sport helps to restore a feminine self-image, which has been severely impaired. All the fencing masters and instructors in charge of those special fencers have been specifically trained, and they are regularly re-trained. To further our action, a fencing instructor who is a member of the French National team of wheelchair athletes has just completed that course, and she has started to run fencing sessions open to every single woman who has had breast cancer – debarring none. With their oncologists’ backing, wheelchair fencing could also be proposed to women with lumbar or sacrum metastases, for whom any sport involving stamping is strictly contraindicated. Thus, the French Federation of Disability Sports meets the French National Olympics and Sports Committee's wish to develop a ‘sport for health’ policy.