Published on November 27, 2023 at 2:34 p.m. Sport365 Editorial
The Minister of Sports and the Olympic and Paralympic Games presented at the Salon des Sports in Paris on November 21, 2023 the events that will punctuate the year 2024 to promote daily physical and sporting activity. The opportunity to officially announce that the Great National Cause would be dedicated for the first time in 2024 to physical and sporting activity. The idea being to take advantage of the momentum of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which will take place next summer, to encourage the French to adopt less sedentary lifestyles.
The view of Denis Masseglia, former President of the CNOSF, in office when the JOPs were awarded in Paris.
Denis Masseglia, ten years ago, you wrote a book with Pascal Boniface entitled “Sport is much more than sport”. Was it premonitory that for the first time since the concept existed, sport would finally become a Great National Cause?
Probably not obviously, even if we could bank on the indisputable and recognized fact that the organization of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris in 2024 would be an exceptional booster to materialize the social and societal importance of sport.
And so here we are: Paris and France have obtained the honor and the responsibility of organizing what we can call the Centenary Games and sport will be in 2024 a Great National Cause. What does this inspire you?
First of all, a feeling of pride. When you have been an activist in the sports movement for 60 years, it is a legitimate source of pride to see sport recognized as a Great National Cause. It is certain that organizing the Games in France will have greatly contributed to this, but it is a whole and that is very good.
What is your feeling about the presentation of the device?
The Minister, the president of the CNOSF and the president of the CPSF presented the different elements of the system. It was very clear and all the measures are interesting and positive to lead more French people to practice sports or physical activity.
You are no longer president of the CNOSF but you were at the time of the Paris 2024 candidacy. Do you certainly have one or more of the proposals that you made at the time that you would have liked to see included in the system?
Of course, but the context has evolved a lot in a short time and we have to know how to adapt to a society that moves very quickly, if I may use the word move which serves as a leitmotif for the system. It is nevertheless a fundamental element which deserves to find a more precise place even if it is present in a diffuse manner. In 2013, we wondered about the relationship between sport and school in the broad sense of the term and more precisely between school and the sports movement. This is where, it seems to me, the GCN 2024 sports system can be enriched, especially since it would have no consequences for public finances.
“Sports practice is primarily based on the notion of pleasure”
What is it exactly?
Well, it is about the marriage which does not yet exist and which must be organized between the school and the sports club to optimize education in the broad sense of the term. First, you have to agree on the words because they all have a meaning. It is indeed good to promote physical activity from primary school, but this does not necessarily lead to sport. Conversely, it is obvious that sports practice inevitably leads to physical activity.
But why is it so important to differentiate?
For several reasons. The first, the most obvious, is that sports practice, especially among young people, is primarily based on the notion of pleasure. We play sport through play and we thrive there. The second, far from being negligible in these times, is linked to the acquisition of values, in particular the basic value of respect. We all know that organized sport is a place to learn respect for oneself, others and the rules. It’s still quite unique, this learning of an essential societal value without talking about it in an ostentatious way. As for the third, it is linked to the notion of benchmarks. Practicing sports allows you to acquire skills, and this is even more true when you join a sports club. The history, the colors, the jersey are all totems from which the young person will experience a feeling of belonging which will allow them to identify and necessarily grow.
So what could we do that doesn’t cost much and could bring big returns?
Simple to present, until now impossible to achieve as the inertia is so great, but which the Paris 2024 dynamic could finally make it possible to achieve. I dream, I have always dreamed of a world where the two essential places of education, outside the family, which are the school and the sports club, establish a synergy whose beneficiaries will be the young person, his family and the Nation, which will thereby increase its chances of becoming a sportswoman.
Can we imagine that the sports club is not in competition but just complementary to what is done at school and that only the interests of the young person should be taken into consideration?
So, can we dream together that decision-makers decide to rely on Sport GCN 2024 to allow all federated sports clubs located in the geographical territory of a school or college to contact (or receive for the best organized) to children in classes from CM1 to 5th to tell them that they would just be happy to welcome them and that they could make them want to join them?
“In 2024, it’s now or never”
How do you see this from an organizational perspective?
Why not try, at least on an experimental basis during a dedicated week during the month of June, to install as many bridges as possible between school and sports clubs and see the first results at the start of the school year?
Do you think this is still within the realm of achievability?
Of course firstly because in 2020, at the time of the Covid crisis, there was a promising approach with the 2S2C system (what a beautiful symbol that the union of 4 words: Sport Health Culture Civics) or how to work more closely between school and associative world. This therefore shows that it is possible and it is also possible because it is only a question of political will and not of means. I know that without my club I would never have been what I am, I know the importance of the role of the sports club in the construction of the individual and this is what still drives me today, which makes it clear that there are plenty of people like me who want to see more young people in federated sports clubs. A few years ago, the CNOSF carried out a promotional campaign whose title was: “My club is much more than sport! “. It is still relevant today even if the tools and codes have changed. The educational role of the club is an asset that must be shared by as many people as possible.
And what message would you like to send in this direction?
Is it impossible to imagine that all those involved in sport and education could work together and break down barriers? We must promote the social and societal role of the federated sports movement which wanted the Games with all its strength and must also be able to count on them to strengthen its mission, made of passion and commitment, particularly among young people. So thank you in advance to all political, educational and sporting decision-makers for simply saying that in 2024 it is now or never to do it.
Interview conducted by Alain Jouve
