Updated 05/07/2024
182 public employees were selected by the State to participate in the Olympic Torch Relay.
In Haute-Corse, there are two torchbearers chosen to carry the Flame on May 14, 2024. Discover their journey in an interview and video.
Sylvie Ferrandini-Ferrier
Ministry of National Education and Youth
What is your background as a state agent?
After a first career in the private sector, I joined National Education around ten years ago as a teacher in Economics-Management, for more than 3 years I have been based at the Directorate of Departmental Services of National Education ( DSDEN) I coordinate school dropouts in the Haute-Corse department. I have also been working at the IUT of Corsica on the PAsseport pour REussir et s’Oriente (PARéO) system since its creation in September 2022, teaching communication and marketing.
My primary mission is to support secondary school students showing signs of dropping out of school and by initiating individualized measures. Close to the teams, on the ground, we work together on a daily basis to ensure that no young person is left behind.
You are also strongly involved in the associative sector, with which association are you involved?
On May 14, I will represent the association “A Spondisulana” which mobilizes through sporting events to fight against Ankylosing Spondylitis.
Symbolically, my husband is president of the association. On a daily basis, it is me who instigates and designs actions linked to physical activity, the aim being to get patients moving to prevent the ankylosis linked to this disease.
Characterizing myself as a real driving force, I wanted to create the A Spondisulana association to support my husband and all patients who suffer from Ankylosing Spondylitis. I have always been attentive to others, so I wanted to highlight this disease, incurable and debilitating, on a daily basis by running long distances.
Last year, I ran 110 km solo between Bastia and Evisa. This year the challenge was more united and we traveled together, sick, non-sick, friends and families, 97 km between Bastia and Calvi.
You have been selected to participate in the Olympic Torch Relay on May 14 in Haute-Corse, what does this mean to you?
Being part of the Olympic Torch torchbearers represents a great honor for me because carrying the flame means transmitting a great message of hope for all and above all a message of peace, in this turbulent world, whether for young people or for the sick.
I am moved to have been selected by Paris 2024. The story began with an application submitted by my superiors: Mr. Bruno Benazech, Academic Director of National Education Services (DASEN), and subsequently selected by the Ministry of National Education which transmitted my name to Paris 2024.
The Corsican Academy offers me a great career, where I evolve daily towards very diversified and exciting missions entrusted to me. My daily work will consist of always better supporting the different audiences in their trajectory by overcoming their difficulties.
Being a torchbearer in Bastia, close to my home, my professional and personal life is a real honor. It’s a real happiness that comes to me and I am extremely grateful for it. That day, I would have a thought for my loved ones, without forgetting my mother, my children, my husband and all the people who are made aware, vulnerable and weakened and for whom I would pass on this flame of hope. I will be proud to show my little girls that their Minà carried the Olympic Flame.
The closer May 14th approaches, the more euphoric I feel about experiencing this once-in-a-lifetime event. The distance will be experienced intensely and carried by my sporting values which inhabit me.
In addition to your daily commitments, you practice running at a certain level. What is your record in this discipline?
In running, I would characterize myself as a diesel because I like to run for a long time but at a constant speed.
I have competed in 9 marathons: San Francisco, Rome, Florence, Barcelona, Lyon, Marseille, Copenhagen, Lisbon, Venice.
In terms of my sporting record, I did the GR20 (in 11 days) from Calenzana to Conca, and a few ultra trails: Chamonix, the climb of the Sara in Lyon (11,620 steps), the Sainte Express.
I ran for 24 hours as a team and 6 hours individually.
Running represents for me surpassing one’s limits, while always having this spirit of looking out for oneself and others. When you run for a long time you also have great endurance in everyday life. These are values that I want to transmit by being a torchbearer.
Warrant Officer Basan Utnasanov
Ministry of the Armed Forces, adjutant in the Foreign Legion
Warrant Officer Basan is a fighter, in every sense of the word. In his professional, personal and sporting life. It took courage and determination for him to leave his family and his nation of origin, Kalmykia, a small republic in Russia, at the age of 24, to join the Foreign Legion. “ It’s not a trivial decision to leave everything behind to serve another country, but I was young, I wanted to experience something different, I wanted adventure », recognizes the man who started as a sports teacher in his country before discovering a vocation during his military service.
Deployed initially in Guyana in the infantry to ensure land protection of the Ariane 5 launch base and fight against illegal gold panning, it is within the 2e foreign parachute regiment from Calvi that he has distinguished himself over the last 16 years. Whether to contribute to the protection of the territory in New Caledonia, on the front in the fight against jihadism in Mali, or through support missions in Djibouti and the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire for which he He was also decorated with the Combatant’s Cross in 2019.
Naturalized French since 2010, he also wears the colors of his adopted homeland high on the tatami mats. If he practiced freestyle wrestling at the national level in his childhood, it is today in Brazilian jiu-jitsu that he demonstrates all his strength, his tenacity and his great self-control. Black belt in the discipline, French champion and European bronze medalist in – 88 kg last year, the father of two children, “et soon of a third which should be born during the Games », will carry the Olympic flame on May 14 in Bastia “ thinking of my family here in France, but also in my country of origin and it will be an honor to be the representative of the Foreign Legion and the 150 nationalities that make it up. »
