What is the Joinville battalion, the army of champions that makes France shine at the Paralympics?

At the origin of the Paralympic Games, veterans of the Second World War, seriously injured during the fighting. Even today, the military hold a prominent place among the approximately 4,400 athletes who will compete for gold from Thursday, August 29, 2024.

On the side of French sportsmen, the Joinville battalion (Val-de-Marne) is a real breeding ground where sportsmen receive a military training while continuing their high-level sports practiceCreated in 1852 and dissolved in 2002, it was reconstituted in 2014 within the National Center for Defense Sports (CNSD) in Fontainebleau (Seine-et-Marne).

The ancestor of Insep

Nestled in the Redoute de la Faisanderie – a structure that formed the fortified belt of Paris, destroyed to make way for the Eastern motorway but whose porch was moved and preserved at Insep, theMilitary Gymnastics Training School of Joinville opened in 1852.

The ambition then was to train sports executives for the armies and military gymnastics instructors. After a few years, the battalion of soldiers from different military sports units was established in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, in the Redoute de Gravelle.

From Michel Platini to Zinedine Zidane

In 1967, along with other sports sections of the army, the structure officially became the Joint Sports School and moved to Fontainebleau. The battalion brings together the elite of French athletes who, obliged to do their military service, join the structure to avoid too long a break in their career.

This is how big names in sport such as Michel Platini, Bixente Lizarazu, Yannick Noah, and even Zinédine Zidane, have spent part of their constituency there.

Army, first contingent of para-athletes

With the suspension of military service, the battalion was disbanded in 2002 after having welcomed nearly 21,000 high-level athletes. It rose from the ashes in 2014 and its main concerns include actively helping high-level athletes with disabilities.

Ten years later, 237 French athletes will shine at the upcoming Paralympics, including: 28 are heirs of the Joinville battalion : Méril Loquette (Boulogne-Billancourt) for para-badminton, Nélia Barbosa (Champigny) for para canoeing-kayaking, Sandrine Martinet-Aurières (Montreuil) in para judo and Pauline Déroulède (Paris) for wheelchair tennis.

Since 1896, the date of the first Olympic Games of the modern era, more than half of French medalswon were by military athletes. Since its creation in 2014, the Army of Champions has won 117 medals at the Olympic Games: 45 gold, 32 silver and 40 bronze. To this must be added the 21 medals (4 gold, 6 silver and 11 bronze) won at the Paris Olympics.

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