Born in Kinshasa in 1983, Trésor Makunda left the Democratic Republic of Congo at age 7, when his mother took him to France in the hope that specialists there could correct his poor vision. But pigmentary retinopathy set in, brought on by an earlier infection, and he began adapting to life with a visual impairment.

As a boy, Trésor followed the career of champion runner Carl Lewis on television, and at age 14 he got into athletics himself. The only challenge was finding an organization where he could practice the sport he loved. In 2000 he joined a club in Villejuif, just south of Paris, and began running with a guide, winning a string of French national championships.

At 19, Trésor was chosen to compete in the 2002 World Para Athletics Championships in Lille, France, but it was not until two years later, as a naturalized citizen, that he could finally represent France at the 2004 Paralympics in Athens, Greece. He took the 100m silver medal at the Athens Games, and went on to win title after title at the World Championships, the European Championships and the Paralympic Games in Beijing, London and Tokyo.