David Smetanine

Mr Smet, Sa Saintete (Athlete, 20 Mar 2019)

Travel, skiing. (Athlete, 20 Mar 2019)

Competing at the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing and the 2010 World Championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands. (Athlete, 20 Mar 2019)

US sprinter and long jumper Carl Lewis. (Athlete, 20 Mar 2019)

"They did not know it was impossible so they did it." (Athlete, 05 Sep 2021)

He received the 2018 Grand Prix Award from the Fair Play International Committee in Budapest, Hungary. (hu.ambafrance.org, 13 Sep 2019)

He was named a Knight of the French Legion of Honour in recognition of his performances at the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing. (legifrance.gouv.fr, 14 Nov 2008)

To compete at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris and then retire from elite swimming. (Athlete, 05 Sep 2021)

He was involved in a car accident in 1995, which resulted in partial quadriplegia. He has some degree of paralysis in all of his limbs, and has also lost sensation in his hands. (Athlete, 20 Mar 2019; 20minutes.fr, 09 Sep 2008)

OTHER ACTIVITIES
In December 2017 he was elected to serve as a member of the World Para Swimming Athletes' Advisory Group [AAG] from 2018 to 2021. In 2018 the region of Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes in France selected him as ambassador for its 'Sport & Disability' programme. In 2016 he was named a member of the Athlete's Committee of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games Organising Committee. He also serves in the same role at the French National Olympic and Sporting Committee and at the French Anti-doping agency. (Facebook profile, 25 Feb 2020; LinkedIn profile, 18 Mar 2019; placegrenet.fr, 04 Sep 2018; paralympic.org, 08 Dec 2017; wechamp-entreprise.co, 2020; apf-francehandicap.org, 25 Oct 2021)

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
He uses his platform as an elite athlete to promote environment issues. "When I was a young boy I wanted to be oceanographer just like [French sea explorer] Jacques Cousteau in order to understand the oceans and learn how to protect them. I am an ambassador of the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund [UNICEF] project named 'La nuit de l'eau' [The night of the water]. As a high performance athlete I think I have a responsibility to transmit a message to the people. Being an ecologist is, above all, a matter of education." (Instagram profile, 14 Nov 2020)