It seems that, when you were an educator in a club, you had the multiplication tables reviewed during training… Are we here in the social performance of sport?
Absolutely. I had a heterogeneous group of young people aged 5 to 8, on mini-bad. The idea was that at the end of the season, whether they continued in this sport or not, they had learned something. It is based on the fact that badminton is only a support on which it is possible to graft learning: learning English words on the discipline, geography with the great champions or counting! An example: we had seven fields in front of us; two or four players per field. In the end, how many players do we have on the board? We are in the social performance of sport, with a discipline, badminton, which is not considered as an end but a support: to fight against school dropout, promote integration, etc. It is a question of having an impact which can also be on the health, the socialization of isolated people, etc.
How to find the balance between this project and the purpose of any Olympic federation: competition?
Of course, this is not forgotten. But it only concerns a third of our licensees (a total of 190,000 in 2,000 clubs, before the health crisis, editor’s note). It is an atypical profile for an Olympic federation. So the challenge is also to address these tens of thousands of people who have not competed and who do not necessarily wish to do so. And behind that, it is a question of giving meaning to sports practice in an association.
What do you expect from local authorities?
We must start from the richness of the territory. Today, a club that only looks at its place of practice and the interior of the association, is in danger. The world is changing, with more consumerist approaches. This is why we also try, with these social performance programs, to retain practitioners.
But this approach is not built with our badminton skills alone. Hence the importance of creating spaces for exchange in each of the territories, between the sports, cultural, economic, social fabric, etc. Clubs and communities need to talk to each other about more than grants and slots. As such, we also produce memos for our managers on how to build a lasting and solid relationship with their community.
What place does the plan for 5,000 local facilities have in this policy?
The idea is to tell a new story and for that, we need to implement these flying sports everywhere. Beyond badminton, therefore, an indoor discipline, we also offer AirBadminton which is practiced outdoors with a shuttlecock that holds the wind better. Without forgetting the fit’minton which corresponds to fitness using the gestures of badminton. We therefore wish to attract new practitioners according to their personal fiber. The 5000 equipment plan therefore aims to install light AirBadminton structures. Then there is the challenge of bringing the equipment to life. Because the important thing is not the shell but what you put in it…