Our special file “Return to sport”
Sport has been designated by President Emmanuel Macron as a “great national cause in 2024”. Two years before the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris, sports practice is (finally) taking on a new impetus. Suffice to say that this return to school in 2022 is particularly awaited, in particular by the tens of thousands of sports clubs all over France which, after two years marked by the health crisis, are (r)opening their doors wide.
And the numbers are exploding. Already 600,000 members of the French Basketball Federation, soon 500,000 in handball and 300,000 in athletics. “Among young people under 12, we are recording membership records,” rejoices Philippe Boidé, development manager at the French Athletics Federation (FFA). 81,000 children thus invaded the slopes, which would almost make us forget the 15% drop recorded during the Covid.
Never has athletics (+ 16.5% licensees) attracted so many people. “Today, there is a real attraction for outdoor sports,” said Thibault Deschamps, national sports and health referent at the FFA. “Athletics also allows you to acquire a motor base, in the same way as knowing how to swim or knowing how to ride, he continues. We work on jumping, throwing, walking, running, essential skills for practicing other sports. »
Athletics and judo revive
Athletics, like most disciplines, is practiced from the age of 4 years. Judo, very affected by the Covid – indoor and contact sports having long been banned – is also reviving. The French Federation has thus just offered itself a large advertising campaign, with in particular a clip featuring chef Thierry Marx, black belt in judo, which recalls the educational values of sport which is a hit with children.
Like judo, which is taking over the halls of buildings – thanks in particular to the 5,000 new infrastructures plan wanted by President Macron – sport is now inviting itself downstairs. The Golden Blocks of former 110m hurdles world champion Ladji Doucouré crisscross the neighborhoods, 3 x 3 basketball courts are springing up between buildings or under the Paris metro. The practice is becoming more democratic and leaving the classic club structures.
Touch everything before choosing your path
In many cities, the municipal sports offices welcome children after school and offer to introduce them to different disciplines. A good way to touch everything before choosing your path. Sport – or rather physical activity – is now also played at school, since teachers are now all invited to get their students moving every day for thirty minutes. The objective is to fight against the sedentary lifestyle and overweight of children, to improve their physical and pulmonary capacities and thus to optimize their health.
Because the figures are alarming: according to a recent study by Public Health France, among 6-17 year olds, only half of boys and a third of girls practice at least one hour of physical activity (the threshold recommended by the World Organization of health) of moderate to high intensity per day. In two years, France will organize the biggest sporting event in the world. And success will not be measured only by the number of French medals or spectators in the stadiums…