Through Vanessa Leroy
Published on
Two years before the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Olympic Games, for 3,500 high school students aged between 15 and 18, coaches and referees, will take place in Normandie from May 14 to 22, 2022, organized by theNational Union of School Sport (UNSS) with the support of the Interministerial Delegation to Major International Sports Events (DIGES).
“The games before the games”
“The games before the games”, promises Mehdi Rahoui, deputy national director of the UNSS, currently visiting the region in the company of Josip Košutić, the sports director of the UNSS. International School Sports Federation (ISF).
“It is an honor to be in France, in Normandy, for the 19th edition of the Gymnasiade. Welcoming students from all over the world here is a great experience, not just sporting. Normandy is the perfect place to bear witness to the past and to learn ”,
20 events hosted
Several Normandy sites will host the 20 sporting events, including three parasportives: Deauville (badminton, beach volleyball and orienteering), Caen (swimming, athletics, archery, orienteering), Le Havre (breaking et basket 3 × 3) et Rouen (gymnastics, fencing, rugby 7) but also Montivilliers (table tennis), Pont-Audemer (boxing), Val-de-Reuil (judo, wrestling, taekwondo), the forest ofChecks (orienteering) and the Mont Saint Michel (orienteering race). All are supervised by some 1,500 volunteers, “half of whom will be young people,” says Nathalie Vallognes, director of sports at the ISF Gymnasiade.
1.2 million licensees in France
“The Gymnasiade will bring together 80 different nations in one region. This is a real challenge for us because if we organize this competition, it is to highlight the specificity of the French education system which has a school sports federation ”, underlines Mehdi Rahoui. With 1.2 million licensees, the UNSS is the second French sports federation after the French Football Federation.
Objectives for the institution: “Fight against sedentary lifestyle, promote sporting activity, which is fully in line with public policies. But also to promote the French education system and allow our students to experience games before games, one of our slogans. “
Table tennis in Montivilliers
The town of Montivilliers, near Le Havre, is one of the lucky ones. “We were seduced by the quality of the equipment and the investments made by the municipality and the Max Louvel complex is truly the author of an international competition. [NDLR : la salle qui jouxte le gymnase Christian-Gand a été inauguré en septembre 2021] », Specifies Mehdi Rahoui.
A decision which delighted the mayor Jérôme Dubost whose city is deeply anchored in the sport: “Montivilliers, it is 16,000 inhabitants and 4,000 sports licensees. We recently hosted the French minimum and junior table tennis championship. “And to add that the town is labeled” Land of Games 2024 “for handball and judo.
Has this article been useful to you? Please note that you can follow 76actu in the Mon Actu space. In one click, after registration, you will find all the news of your favorite cities and brands.
