French para cyclists topped the medals table at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, with 10 gold, 12 silver and 6 bronze medals across road and track.
While the athletes basked in their home glory, a culmination of months and years of preparation, one of their coaches, Mathieu Jeanne, has just been honoured in his turn by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).
The IPC’s Para Sport Awards, organised every two years, recognise exceptional performances and contributions of summer and winter sport athletes, teams, coaches, community projects and volunteers.
Among this year’s winners announced on 11 November, Mathieu Jeanne is the first to point out that his honour of “Best Coach” is thanks to the teamwork of all the French team’s coaches, staff and the athletes themselves: “Without them, I would not have won this title, so it is also for them,” was his first reaction.
Jeanne’s journey in para cycling began in 2011 with an internship at the end of his studies in Amiens, where his Master’s degree focused on “coaching and para sport”.
The following year he worked as a staff member for the French team, accompanying them to the London 2012 Paralympic Games before creating his own coaching structure for a variety of cycling disciplines and for para and non-para athletes.
Objective Paris 2024
However, he returned to the French para cycling team in 2018, after being contacted by former para cyclist Laurent Thirionet (five-time UCI World Champion and double Paralympic Champion) who had been given the challenge of ensuring the French would shine at their home Games in 2024. A disappointing performance at Rio 2016 – where the national team came away with just one bronze medal and was ranked 23rd among nations – needed to be rectified.
Jeanne explains: “France, host country of the 2024 Games, had to rise to the occasion, so a new team and a new project were created. A team was formed with a single focus: performance optimisation.”
Physical and mental preparation, training science, medical monitoring, data science, optimisation and search for marginal gains… no stone was left unturned in the bid to put France on the pedestal.
While the challenge paid off (“the results are a source of great pride, like a feeling of having accomplished our mission”) it is now a question of keeping the momentum going through to Los Angeles 2028 and beyond.
“But I’m not really worried about that,” says the coach. “We have athletes who are already challenging the Paris 2024 Champions, so it's really motivating. Usually after a Paralympics, we start a new cycle that can sometimes be complicated, with a lot of ‘retirements’, but for us it's almost the opposite.”
Nurturing young talent
He nevertheless stresses that emphasis is not solely on high-level athletes:
“Supporting young athletes until they reach maturity is important. For example, Alexandre Léauté [multiple Paralympic and UCI World Champion] joined us at the age of 17, as did Florian Jouanny [also crowned at both the Paralympics and UCI World Championships], who was far from dominating his category when he arrived. I am talking about two of our champions here, but there are many other examples.”
25e titre de champion du Monde ce soir à Rio 🌈🙏🏻 pic.twitter.com/pbF5MF5S5I
— Alexandre Léauté (@LeauteAlexandre) October 19, 2025
He adds: “It is important to note that while we have done everything possible to ensure our athletes perform well, we are also fortunate to have talented athletes in every discipline and category. We appreciate how lucky we are to coach all these champions.”
To accompany the 30 para cyclists who make up the current “high-level” team, Mathieu Jeanne can count on the support of assistant coach Flavien Arnal.
“We complement each other and constantly challenge each other,” he says. The pair also works with other coaches. “Nearly half of these athletes have their own personal coach, with whom we communicate throughout the year via a dedicated platform.”
Increased professionalism
In addition, Mathieu Jeanne leads several research projects, for example concerning marginal gains (when it comes to both bikes and orthopaedics) and postural studies (via wind tunnel tests). Such precision has become increasingly necessary in para cycling, which is ever more competitive and professional.
“Para Cycling is evolving in the right direction. In 2012, only the British were highly professionalised, with state-of-the-art equipment and significant human resources identical to those of non-para national teams.
“Today, several nations have caught up, but there is still a long way to go before the entire cycling world has the same resources. However, this is not unique to para cycling; the same problem exists in non-para cycling.”
Jeanne continues: “What is encouraging today is to see pelotons with increasingly homogeneous levels of athletes. We are witnessing exciting races that require strategy, something that was less common fifteen years ago.”
Despite some 14 UCI World Championships (para cycling road and para cycling track) under his belt, he is not ready to slow down his efforts to see para cycling continue its progression. His motivation and enthusiasm remain intact:
“I love the diversity, between road and track, the different degrees of impairment, the life story of each athlete. No two days are ever the same in para cycling; every day, you learn and discover something new.”