“Get children moving and change the way we look at disabled sports” – Libération

As part of the Olympic and Paralympic Week, Sandra Laoura, a former freestyle skier and medalist at the Turin Olympics, went to the Voltaire nursery school. Half a day to talk about sport for all, health and disability.

“Do you know when the Olympic flame will arrive in France?” On the board, Thursday April 4, the teacher’s name is Sandra Laoura. And facing the bronze medalist in freestyle skiing at the 2006 Turin Olympics, a nursery class from the Voltaire school in Montreuil. The former athlete donned the school uniform for half a day as part of Olympic and Paralympic Week (SOP). She disembarked, under a guard of honor, before crossing the corridors in the Olympic colors. The whole school has prepared for this SOP, during which athletes tour classes all over France, as standard bearers of sport for all and inclusion. Tuesday, welcoming 4,000 kids to the Adidas Arena, Porte de la Chapelle in Paris, Tony Estanguet summed up the operation: “We must take advantage of the Olympic dynamic to get children moving and change the way we look at disabled sports.” At a time when obesity is a major public health problem, “sport at school is the mother of battles,” praised the Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra. Hence the thirty minutes of physical activity at school, an idea launched by the Olympic Organizing Committee (Cojo) and taken up on the fly by Emmanuel Macron. “Our programs push us to do it every day,” confirms Virginie Janvier, one of the teachers at the Voltaire school.

After her arrival with fanfare, Sandra Laoura launches a slideshow on the Olympic Games: it presents its different symbols, the rings, the flame, the Phryges – the two mascots of Paris 2024 – as well as the 32 disciplines and the countries which will participate in the tests. But eyes widen especially when the former skier draws her 2006 medal. “It’s not even heavy,” boasts Yacine, to impress her friends from the big section. “I also won a medal in skiing,” says a little voice. While the slides scroll, Sandra Laoura answers all the questions but especially one. “How did this happen to you?” the students take turns pointing out the wheelchair of the athlete, who lost the use of his legs a year after the Turin Olympics during an accident during training. “Sometimes we fall, but we get up and keep moving forward,” she explains in choice words. Before continuing with the “inclusive sport” lesson of the day: “Whatever your physique, you can do an activity.” Around her, the schoolchildren begin to play tennis, basketball and dance workshops. Girls and boys exchange racket in hand: “This interaction is important. We have to show them that even if they are in a wheelchair, having fun is allowed. There is no brake,” insists Sandra Laoura. “To say that sport is for everyone, despite differences, is a general well-being,” says Florence Touzé, the director of the Voltaire school.

A message – a mission – which must not stop once the Paris Olympics and Paralympics are over. In total, three million students have participated since 2017 and the Cojo is talking about two million just for this edition but “the SOP will survive, it is part of the intangible heritage of the Olympic Games”, we insist at the organizing committee, which will give the keys to the operation to the French Olympic committee in September. Sandra Laoura even imagines that the system will be imposed twice a year in the future: “This must become universal.”