Boris Ghirardi: “Performance and passion have no limits!”

From Boris Ghirardi to “Robot Foot”: A Story of Love and Resilience

Boris Ghirardi is like that sporty friend we’ve all had — always chasing the next physical challenge. Until 2019, his passion was CrossFit. But in 2019, everything collapsed. Boris was in a motorcycle accident, and his left foot was amputated. Far from giving in, he once again turned to sport. “After the accident, my first thoughts were for my wife and daughter. But right after that, it was about sport,” recalls Boris, who even used the bars of his hospital bed in intensive care to do dips.

A quirk? Far from it. Boris is adamant: sport saved his life and opened up incredible opportunities, despite his amputation. He’s convinced his muscle mass protected him almost as much as his biker gear. He goes even further: “Sport was my best therapy. When you train, you set deadlines and goals. You know there will be bad patches because progress isn’t linear. You can get injured — but you have to adapt and keep pushing yourself. In fact, everything you learn through sport helps you get back up. As Leonardo da Vinci said, movement is the source of all life.”

From the moment of his accident, one question obsessed him: how could he get back into sport quickly and effectively? That’s when he crossed paths with a group of engineering students from Grenoble and Jérôme Bernard, a triple amputee athlete. The group was working on a running blade that was both versatile and affordable. This prosthesis accompanied Boris in his gradual return, running 50 meters every kilometer covered. Step by step, he managed to run 5 km in 30 minutes, then 10 km in one hour. And it helped him rethink his relationship with performance: “It starts with you and for you. When you rebuild yourself after a life-changing accident, the first person who needs to be convinced it’s possible is yourself. What matters is setting goals without comparing yourself to others.”

It was during this period that he earned the nickname “Robot Foot,” which stuck with him. “It was my three-year-old daughter at the time who gave it to me. She used to say, ‘Daddy, put on your robot foot and chase me!’ And it just stayed!”

Sharing Sport to Rethink Parasport: Boris Ghirardi’s Commitments

If Boris describes his accident as a transition toward a life as beautiful as it was unexpected, he quickly came face to face with the reality of disability. Doors closed, barriers rose, and nothing seemed accessible anymore. And that made him angry: how is it possible that sport, with all the values it carries, is still not more inclusive? While he acknowledges the growing visibility of major parasport competitions, for him, it’s far from enough.

“These events represent only a tiny minority of people with disabilities. We’re talking about elite athletes. Everyday people can’t identify with that, and it makes sport feel even more out of reach. Yet sport is essential — for balance in life, for leisure, for building social connections. Whether you’re disabled, whatever your skin color, religion, whether you’re a woman or a man, it doesn’t matter. You put on your gear, and you become an athlete. That’s also how you can define yourself. You can reclaim your identity. You may be living with a disability, but that can come second if you want it to.”

Disability takes many forms, whether physical or mental. No two people with disabilities are alike. But for Boris, that’s not the point. For him, what matters is the will to share sport — and that includes locker rooms, showers, and the ride to the stadium.

When he founded Level’Up, his association, he had only one idea in mind: open every door, for every disability. “No matter the discipline, what I want is to find solutions to make it possible, and to ensure people feel invited and included.”

“Robot Foot” refuses to let parasport be reserved for a privileged few. With the Team Adaptive, a group of athletes he prepares for ultra-trails and ultra-cycling races, he is rethinking performance to make it accessible. “In Team Adaptive, I work with athletes with a diversity of disabilities — visible, invisible, motor, psychological. These athletes embody what’s possible. Some compete at a high level. Others do it for leisure. The amazing thing is that it inspires far beyond disability. So many people see us and think: ‘I’m sitting on my couch, with all four limbs working, and I’m doing nothing.’ Seeing that it’s possible for us motivates them to get moving.”

Today, with Team Adaptive, Boris Ghirardi collaborates with legendary trail races, ultra-cycling competitions, and major sports brands to make them truly inclusive. It’s public service work in its own right.

Recovery Means Adaptation

For para-athletes, recovery is an even more strategic challenge than it is for able-bodied athletes — particularly because they often need to expend much more energy to reach the same goals. Boris explains: “For a below-the-knee amputee like me, it’s about 25% more energy. For an above-the-knee amputee, it’s 70%. In Team Adaptive, Franck is on the autism spectrum. He has a certain tolerance for social interactions and noise. Once that’s exceeded, everything turns into an overwhelming blur, and it creates a lot of stress. So he expends a huge amount of energy just to compensate for that. That’s why we have to pay close attention to every aspect of recovery — sleep, nutrition — and anything else that can support it. We couldn’t train without it. We don’t have a choice.”

On top of that, many para-athletes rely on equipment to practice their sport, and this can itself create discomfort or injuries that need to be taken into account. Recovery is therefore a vital strategy of adaptation — one that “Robot Foot” teaches to the 14 athletes he manages and will be accompanying at the end of August to the start line of a legendary Alpine trail race.

“Whether it’s a cream, nutrition, or sleep — we take everything that helps us get to the start line. Our injuries can really poison the experience, and if we can avoid them, it lets us enjoy it so much more.”