what economic and financial support for athletes after Paris 2024?

Will the legacy of the Games also be economical for the athletes? After the success of the major Olympic and Paralympic events of Paris 2024, during which many French athletes were thrust into the spotlight, the question of the future of financial support for high-level athletes necessarily arises. Especially since, in a year and a half, the next Olympic and Paralympic event is looming, in Milan-Cortina (Italy), for the 2026 Winter Games.

In view of the Games at home, particular attention was paid to the means and support systems. These can take several forms: payment of financial aid, image contracts, professional integration contracts (CIP, with companies) or employment arrangements (with public institutions), which offer stability and organization for training and competition, high-level sporting jobs.

“Between 2020 and 2023, we increased the resources dedicated to supporting athletes by 75%, which is significant”confides Yann Cucherat, who will take charge of high performance at the National Sports Agency (ANS) on October 1. He also ensures that the ANS pays today “a little over 17 million euros for everything relating to the socio-professional monitoring of athletes”. The ANS has notably set up two major systems: identifying potential medal winners and guaranteeing them a minimum annual income of 40,000 euros gross, and ensuring that no athlete entered in the Games is below the poverty line, i.e. a income of 15,000 euros minimum insured.

Same dynamic with the Army of Champions, which has made a specific effort with a view to Paris 2024. “The Ministry of the Armed Forces recruited around a hundred more athletes and para-athletes between 2019 and 2024. We went from 150 in 2019 to 232 high-level defense athletes in 2024”explains General Paul Sanzey, joint commissioner for military sports. “The army has devoted every year, since 2019, a major payroll effort for athletes and para-athletes of the Joinville battalion (unit which brings together sportsmen within the army).” Some companies had also launched their team of athletes on the road to Paris 2024, like Allianz (eight athletes divided between mentors and less experienced athletes) and LVMH (seven athletes, including Antoine Dupont and Léon Marchand).

The Games are now over, questions now focus on the future of this support. Several companies have confirmed to franceinfo: sport their desire to continue their commitment. “It’s planned, budgets and investments will remain at the same level, it’s really something that we want to consolidate (…) We are in constant research, we continually meet athletes to see if they can integrate our system”explains Agnès Desmaret, corporate communications and group brand manager at RATP, which has offered image contracts and CIPs to high-level athletes since 1982.

For the Paris 2024 Games, the Parisian transport company supported six athletes, including Carlota Dudek, one of the two French women competing in breaking. “The system will be built with a minimum of six athletes, like what we have at the moment. We are very keen to continue it”she assures.

At EDF, whose first contracts with athletes date back more than twenty years, the support will not stop after the summer of 2024 either. “The EDF team existed before Paris 2024, it will continue to exist afterwards, that’s a certaintysays Alexandre Boulleray, Paris 2024 sponsorship and external activations manager within the company. We are going to take the time, at the end of the year, to discuss with all the athletes who make up the team, to see what their life plan is, their career plan, before quietly planning for the years to come. “

Same projection for the SNCF, whose 31 professional integration contracts currently make up the system for athletes, which has existed since 1982. “The SNCF Athletes Scheme has existed for forty-two years, there is no reason for this to changesays Laurent Guillemette, director of major sporting events. Even though the next Summer Games will take place in the United States, we continue to follow our athletes in their sporting and professional careers.“ With varied contracts and different deadlines, companies have announced their intention to take stock with the members of their team, before possibly looking for new profiles.

“After each Games, whether Rio, London, Tokyo, there is a turnover between two Olympic campaigns. There, we embark on a strategy of acquiring new athletes.”

Laurent Guillemette, director of major sporting events at SNCF

at franceinfo: sport

Created during preparation for the Paris Games, the Allianz athletes team will also continue. “We want to continue to support them, but it must be a common desire with a shared project. As long-term partners of the Olympic and Paralympic Games we are part of this logic, if indeed our athletes want to continue the adventure”assures Christophe Dépont, director of brand, advertising, social networks and partnerships at Allianz France. He also explains that “the financial outlook is stable” and that “the idea is to continue touring with a tight team.”

On the side of the ANS, “the objective is really to consolidate everything that we have put in place to be able to project ourselves and consider that what happened at Paris 2024 is a foundation, and that we must no longer go back “assures Yann Cucherat, explaining that it is “all the work initiated by the agency over the past few years”.

But it is also awaiting the vote on the 2025 budget to know its economic room for maneuver. “We will see the means at our disposal and whether we are able to continue to carry out these programs. Very clearly, these systems which allow us to support the athletes are essential for us”affirms Yann Cucherat.

The prospect of the 2030 Winter Games in the French Alps also represents a new goal to look towards. “The 2030 Winter Games in the French Alps is a goal for the French military ski team, which represents a quarter of the strength of the Joinville battalion, says General Paul Sanzey. We will dialogue with the Ministry of Sports to give us the possibility of welcoming not only high-level athletes, but also coaches and perhaps referees in certain disciplines. We are also going to further open the Joinville battalion to para-athletes from the armed forces, veterans in particular, among whom the desire to compete was spread during the Paralympic Games.”.

The meeting is also identified by the director of major events at SNCF, Laurent Guillemette, in the team’s developments: “We want more winter sports. We had up to four athletes, we only have one left [le snowboardeur Ken Vuagnoux]. OWe would like to have five or six, so we will try to find some young shoots.”