de la BOURDONNAYE Gilles

Classification
TT10 (ITTF, 01 Aug 2021)

Origin of Impairment
Acquired (bleushandisport.com, 22 Sep 2020)

Impairment Details
His right forearm was amputated at age three following an elevator accident while living in Dakar, Senegal. (loire-atlantique.fr, 01 Jan 2020; bleushandisport.com, 22 Sep 2020)

General
BREAK AND RETURN
He stepped away from Para table tennis after the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing. He was convinced to return to the sport in 2018, and set a goal of qualifying for the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo with compatriot Mateo Boheas. "I would have never thought about the Paralympic Games, but once I returned from Brazil I joined the Nantes Atlantique club. My teammates were surprised during training and encouraged me to make a comeback, and the idea of competing in Tokyo seduced me." (loire-atlantique.fr, 01 Jan 2020; handisport.org, 16 May 2019)

PROFESSIONAL CAREER
He has worked in a number of roles for the representative office of the French region of Pays de la Loire, including three years based in the People's Republic of China. He also worked for Alliance Francaise in Florianopolis, Brazil, from 2014 to 2018 before returning to France and taking up a role as a project manager for the Americas with the Pays de la Loire representative office in Nantes in 2019. From 2009 to 2014 he also served as president of Tennis de Table Club Nantes Atlantique. (LinkedIn profile, 04 Aug 2021)

FURTHER STUDIES
After earning a master's degree in philosophy in 1997, he would earn a second master's degree in Franco-Chinese management from the Institute of Economics and Management at the University of Nantes in France two years later. (LinkedIn profile, 04 Aug 2021)