Victor Wembanyama followed in his parents’ footsteps in becoming an athlete.
At just 22 years old, the 7’4″ basketball player, nicknamed the Alien for his unbelievable height and uber-long extremities, is heading to the NBA Finals, which begin on Wednesday, June 3 live from San Antonio, Texas.
Texas is a long way away from home for the San Antonio Spurs star, who is originally from Le Chesnay-Rocquencourt, a suburb to the west of Paris. Learn all about his upbringing and his athlete parents below.
Victor’s childhood
Victor, whose full name is Victor Nonga Wembanyama-de Fautereau-Vassel, and is often also referred to as Wemby, was born on January 4, 2004, to dad Félix Wembanyama and mom Élodie de Fautereau.
Growing up, Victor practiced both soccer and judo, before focusing on basketball, which he began taking seriously by age seven, joining the youth system of Nanterre 92, Nanterre’s professional basketball club, by the time he was 10 years old.
It was during that time that he was first spotted by coach Michaël Allard in Nanterre, who thought he was an assistant coach, because of his height. Goals of being in the NBA blossomed shortly after. “I’ve always felt like I was on a different level,” Victor told the New York Times in 2022. “I was living a different life than everyone else in school, for example, even in elementary school. I was just thinking differently than everyone. I’ve always tried to be original in everything I do, and it’s really something that stays in my soul: Be original. Be one of a kind. It’s like, I can’t explain it. I think I was born with it.”
Knowing he would need to know more English than the little he was taught in school to be in the NBA, by the time he was in middle school, Victor began teaching himself the language by watching videos on Instagram and watching American TV.
© Getty ImagesMeet Elodie and Félix
Félix, who is 6 ‘7″, was born in Belgium and is of Congolese origin, and was a track and field athlete in his youth.
Elodie, who is 6’7″, meanwhile, is from Enghien-les-Bains, a suburb north of Paris, and was also a basketball player growing up, later becoming a basketball coach. Her parents, Victor’s grandparents were both also athletes, basketball players no less.
In addition to Victor, Elodie and Félix are parents to three other children; Eve, the eldest of the three, born in December 2001, and Oscar, the youngest of the bunch, born in March 2007. Both are also basketball players in France.
© InstagramVictor’s relationship with his parents
Victor’s parents are his biggest supporters, but they have also always had boundaries since he was growing up, and didn’t interfere with his basketball career, not even his basketball coach mom.
“They really didn’t interfere with my sport,” Victor said on a June 2023 episode of Good Morning America,” adding that they “let me be how I wanted to be” and that they “made a lot of sacrifices.”
Speaking to the EuroLeague website in 2022 about how he “never” trained with his mom, he explained: “It’s not that she doesn’t want to get involved in my performance, but she knows her role. You know what I mean? And she knows as a parent sometimes it’s better to fade off or not to get too much involved in your children’s path.”
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