the essential
After the Olympic and Paralympic flags, the department will welcome another symbol of the Olympic Games: the flame. And even if Aveyron will be far from the excitement of the competition this summer, Evelyne Douls, the president of the Departmental Olympic Committee, hopes that it will keep a trace of it.
In Millau, the countdown has been on for a while now. Monday morning, the Aveyron sub-prefecture will host a stage of the Olympic flame, which arrived in France yesterday. And a little over five months ago, it was the Olympic and Paralympic flags that were passing through the department. These symbols of the Olympic Games travel across the territories to bring them a part of the spectacle that will enliven the capital and the other Olympic sites throughout the summer. Because Aveyron, like many departments, will be far from the excitement of this global event. Some athletes will come to warm up there, such as the Brazilian women’s rugby sevens team in Saint-Affrique, or with the potential arrival of the South African climbing selection in Millau. But giving substance to the Games in Aveyron is above all a question of transmission and animation.
“The Games are markers of time”
And this is one of the missions of the Departmental Olympic and Sports Committee (Cdos), which works with the youngest, but also the oldest. “We started with an Ephad in Rodez, Saint-Cyrice to be exact, and we presented a video to the residents to talk about the Olympics. And one person told us: “I went to see the Olympic Games in Grenoble in 1968. “It’s something very moving”, underlines Evelyne Douls, the president of the Aveyron body. She keeps : “The Games are markers of time. Any person, at any age, has been marked at some point by the Olympics.”
And a century after their last visit to France, the representative of the Olympism in Aveyron hopes that the Summer Games “leave a legacy” in the departement. “From the start, the Olympic Games have been about sport, but also, behind that, there are values that we cannot neglect. First friendship, then respect, and we have a lot to do with that, and finally excellence, as an achievement of a high level but above all for oneself”insists Evelyne Douls.
The one who was president of the Aveyron section of “Sport for All” also knows that the event can leave a beneficial legacy for health, whether physical or mental. “It should allow everyone to say to themselves: ‘I need to move a little more.’ This year is a great national cause for healthy sport.”
#French
