2023-10-05 11:52:36
Due to a lack of clubs ready to welcome them in good conditions, French people with disabilities who can practice sport remain too rare. With a view to the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, the French Paralympic and Sports Committee is revitalizing its “Inclusive Club” program, launched in 2018 to alleviate clubs’ apprehensions about welcoming potential participants.
Published on: 05/10/2023 – 11:52 Modified on: 05/10/2023 – 11:54
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This is a figure that says a lot about the delay: in 2023, only 1.4% of clubs in France are capable of welcoming people with disabilities wishing to practice a sporting activity. Aware of the problem, the French Paralympic and Sports Committee (CPSF) wants to take advantage of the deadline for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games to accelerate Club Inclusif, a program launched in 2018 for transversal training of “para-welcoming” structures.
For this, the CPSF but also the French federations of disabled sports and adapted sports, raise awareness during sessions of 3 to 5 days, financed to the tune of 6,000 euros by local authorities, supplemented by personalized support for six months, over a wide range of themes: better understanding of types of disabilities, identification of accessibility needs.
Create a real territorial network
Meetings with potential practitioners are also part of the program, because the barriers are more often psychological than material. “ The perception of leaders, supervisors and volunteers is still full of prejudices about the disability situationexplains Marie-Amélie Le Fur, president of the CPSF. We must reassure the clubs with this 360° training, theoretical and practical, which brings them to these direct meetings to better integrate this welcome into the project. »
The other goal of this initiative is to create a real territorial network, because the current scarcity of suitable clubs can discourage the most motivated, forced to travel an average of 50 km to find their ideal place. “ The activity offered on site may also not be suitable for the person’s pathology.adds Thomas Urban, Paralympic referent in Ile-de-France for the CPSF. The construction of a network led by local communities will make it possible to guide the practitioner in terms of proximity. »
3000 para-welcoming clubs in one year
The stated objective for the 2024-2025 season is to convince 3,000 new structures to get started. By the end of the year, 700 of them should be operational. Others had already taken the plunge for a while, such as the Archers des 3 Lys, a Parisian archery club involved in the program in 2020. The overall and then specific training provided by the program was valuable..
« We expected to be reassured about our behavior, particularly with regard to psychological disabilities, confides his vice-president, Teddy Louison, who confirms that “The brakes were mainly in the heads. We simply had to adapt the training time. »
This season, five members with disabilities are training with the able-bodied in two rooms in the 12th and 15th arrondissements of the capital. There, as in the rest of France, opening the door to an inclusive club will perhaps in the future be a more natural gesture to ensure that everyone’s right to practice physical activity is respected. Without forgetting that a seed of Paralympic champion for Los Angeles 2028 can lie dormant in every young para-sporter.
Also read: Marie-Amélie Le Fur: “The Paris Paralympic Games will mark the history of the competition”
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