Portrait of an inspiring, lucid and passionate athlete, who combines performance, resilience and humility.

It was almost by chance that Valentin Bertrand discovered athletics, fifteen years ago, in the Paris region. "It was my best friend Alexandre who suggested I give it a try. At first, it wasn't much fun, but I soon realized that I could measure myself against the best in the world of handisport."
From his very first competitions, his potential was confirmed, leading him to a training center, and then to a "Pôle France" inLyon. At the same time, he began a STAPS degree in coaching, combining studies and intensive practice.

The sport soon became more than a passion: it became a life project. When the Pôle France moved to Bordeaux, Valentin decided to follow suit. It would prove to be a major turning point: he joined KEDGE Business School to study for a Master's degree in Marketing Management, convinced of the complementarity between the rigor of sport and the skills of the business world.
"I've always wanted to understand how a project, a brand or a partnership works. That's also why I chose marketing: it's a discipline very close to what you experience in top-level sport."

Reconciling the demands of the top level with those of a grande école is no easy task. Valentin had to be meticulously organized to keep everything on track.
"It's a big agenda! "What saved me was being able to spread my two years of Master's over three. Instead of 30 hours of classes a week, I had around 15. That changed everything."
Behind all this flexibility, he remembers above all KEDGE's attentiveness and understanding. "The school understood my project. I'd already been confronted with people who downplayed handisport. At KEDGE, I felt the opposite: respect, interest, and above all a desire to help me succeed."
Between training, lessons, travel and revision, Valentin is building up a demanding but rewarding rhythm. He is grateful for the support of his fellow students: "A lot of them helped me to take notes and catch up on lessons. This solidarity enabled me to stay focused on my sporting goals."
Despite the difficulties associated with the Covid period, he has strong memories of these three years: "I learned to know myself better, to adapt, to manage the pressure. What I experienced at KEDGE is also another form of training."

With his degree in hand, Valentin made a bold decision to move to Amsterdam to train. There, he joined a group of ten athletes made up of seven Paralympians and three high-level able-bodied athletes. "It's an ultra-competitive group, very professional. Everyone has at least one world medal. I'm the only Frenchman, the only international.
This immersion in a foreign environment transformed his vision of sport. "In the Netherlands, the mentality is different. The approach to training, the rigor, the day-to-day management... everything is more structured, more collective too. What's more, it's fascinating to discover another culture, another way of looking at sport.

But the life of a Paralympic athlete remains fraught with obstacles, not least financial ones. After the Paris 2024 Games, Valentin is facing a sharp drop in funding. "Before the Games, a lot of companies were promising heaven and earth. Afterwards, everything stopped. My budget went from 70,000 to 22,000 euros.
A disillusionment he shares, but with realism: "As athletes, we're like entrepreneurs: we build our project, we manage our partnerships, our communication, our image. Except that the product is ourselves and our performance."

Today, Valentin continues to train at the highest level while actively seeking new sponsors. "I'd like to partner with companies who believe in sport as a vehicle for emotion and social impact, who understand that supporting a Paralympic athlete also means supporting a strong message about resilience, diversity and sustainable performance."
Interested as a corporate employee or entrepreneur? You can contact him directly Valentin 👇

Despite the difficulties, Valentin continues to perform at the highest level. In 2023, he won the bronze medal at the World Championships in Paris, and this year he broke the French record in his category with a jump of 6m21 - the second-best world performance of the year.

"These are intense moments that remind you why you're doing all this. But what marks me out the most is everything around it: the encounters, the travel, the discovery of other ways of training."

Lucid, he doesn't hide the downsides of the top level: "When you win, everyone calls you. When you don't perform as well, your phone doesn't ring as much. That's the game.
Despite this, he remains focused on the future. He is already preparing for the 2026 European Championships in Paris, then the World Championships in 2027, before setting his sights on the Los Angeles 2028 Paralympic Games, funding permitting.

Through his experience, Valentin shares a heartfelt message to KEDGE students and graduates:

"Be serious, without taking yourself too seriously."

This phrase, inherited from his coach, sums up his entire philosophy of life. For him, success is not about medals or titles, but about attitude and the way you progress.
"When you reach a certain level - in sport or in the professional world - you can quickly take yourself too seriously. You think what you're doing is important, but there's always something more important. You have to be rigorous, give the best of yourself, but remain a good, simple person.

He also stresses the importance of enjoying the course:
"When I won my world medal, I was alone in bed two hours later. That's when I realized that the most beautiful thing wasn't the result, but everything I'd gone through to get there. Students and recent graduates should keep this in mind: the adventure counts as much, if not more, than the destination."
Valentin encourages Kedgers to dare, to try, to fail sometimes, but above all to savor the small victories. "Setting up a project, launching a business, getting a job... all that is already huge. At the end of the day, it's not the success itself, it's how far we've come to get there.

Today, between sporting rigor and quiet optimism, Valentin Bertrand pursues his adventure with passion and lucidity.
"Sport is a school of life. It's hard, it's unfair sometimes, but it's also the most beautiful thing. Because, whatever the situation, there's always an emotion, a thrill, a desire to surpass oneself."