He barely kept the crowd gathered under the large hall of Insep (National Institute of Sport and Performance) waiting, in the Bois de Vincennes in Paris, this Tuesday. Barely ten minutes late, a feat in itself when you know his habits, Emmanuel Macron made his entrance to present his Olympic and Paralympic wishes in front of an audience of athletes and elected officials, and some representatives of tomorrow’s generations.
Neither Kylian Mbappé, nor Victor Wembanyama, nor Antoine Dupont, who were among the thousand people invited by the Elysée, had yet made the trip to listen for forty minutes to a speech without much announcement. “France could experience its best Games since 1900. But it’s healthy pressure, eh,” he joked, reaffirming the objective of putting France in the top 5 nations next summer.
A stint in the dojo at Insep
“We wanted our Games, we went looking for them. Here they are ! », Attacked the Head of State, just after asking the timid people in the front rows to come closer. “2024 will be a French vintage, an exceptional vintage. Since 2017, we have met the IOC’s requirements,” added the French president. And to capitalize on the specificities of the Paris Games: “these Games will be the greenest, totally aligned with the Paris agreement. It will be a real laboratory for truly sustainable Games. We will create standards and there will be no going back.”
And a tackle in London 2012, one!
The president also assured that the budgets were under control with an increase of 13% for that of Cojop, due to inflation and of only 3% for that of Solidéo. “Incomparable with the 200% increase in that of London,” he said. “In 2016, we had 40% of French athletes qualified for the Rio Games who lived below the poverty line. There will be none in Paris, even though our delegation will approach 800 Olympic and Paralympic athletes,” he also specified.
“We feel that he is concerned,” Clarisse Agbégnénou, reigning Olympic champion, had confided a few moments earlier, while Emmanuel Macron visited the French judo team in the Insep dojo, accompanied by ministers. Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, Rachida Dati and Sylvie Retailleau. “I tried to give him some advice along the way, I hope it will be heard. There are still a lot of questions to answer about health and family. I would love to have my daughter in the Olympic village to be at full strength and feel as good as I can in the home stretch of these Olympic Games.”
If Emmanuel Macron took note of this when receiving the Coq sportif flocked sweaters, named after the official equipment supplier of the French team, he did not push the exercise so far as to put it on during the 38 minutes of his long speech which did not seem to attract the crowd, with many details and technical terms, while at the front of the audience, the youngest had their noses glued to their smartphones. “Sport will help transform our lives.” A little more than these very classic wishes, we hope.