Lhe French National Olympic and Sports Committee, in collaboration with the National Association of Elected Officials in Charge of Sport, recently formulated a plea aimed at making sport a « large municipal causes ». This document proposes ten measures, brought together in a “territorial sports pact”including the One student, one club! initiative, the objective of which is to guarantee access for all students to practicing sports in a club. This orientation illustrates a strong political will to expand the pool of practitioners through a policy of systematic encouragement.
However, this approach to extending sporting practice appears to be out of step with the conclusions of the rapport from the parliamentary office for evaluating scientific and technological choices published in November. He emphasizes that “the scientific analysis of the obstacles to physical activity among adolescents also calls into question public health strategies, mainly oriented towards the promotion of sport, in favor of policies focusing on the prevention of abandonment of sport”. The recommendations call for shifting the center of gravity of public policies. It would be less a question of promoting entry into practice than of ensuring its continuity.
Work on the sporting commitment of young people shows that, without the dropout phenomena, nearly 90% of adolescents would be permanently involved in regular physical activity. The available data nevertheless reveal strong social inequalities in retention in practice. Young people from working-class neighborhoods constitute the group most exposed to dropping out, and this phenomenon affects girls in a particularly marked way: one in two abandons sport during their schooling.
Middle school appears to be the critical period during which this withdrawal takes place. The physical, psychological and social transformations specific to adolescence modify young people’s relationship with the body, with peers and with performance. Added to this are the intensification of academic demands and family recompositions, which can affect the conditions of access to sport. All of these factors contribute to weakening the regularity of the practice.
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