They constantly repeated the same word, before and during the Paris Olympic Games: “Heritage”. Except that six months after this enchanted parenthesis, like Harry Potter and his little friends under a cloak of invisibility, the legacy of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games seems very far away. To never reappear? In any case, this is the path towards which we are tending, if we are to believe the government's desire to reduce, even further, the budget allocated to Sports.
Sport only had space for around thirty seconds on January 14, during Prime Minister François Bayrou's general policy declaration, with in the end as many millions removed. The planer has in fact been passed on the sports budget to the tune of 34 million euros, in a last minute government amendment. This new cut in a sports budget already reduced by more than a hundred million initially has seriously raised eyebrows.
“We need to invest in sport”
In an interview given to West Francethe new Minister of Sports, Marie Barsacq herself contested this decision: “This request for an additional reduction, which would bring the overall reduction to 33%, is truly disproportionate. In the aftermath of the Games, we, on the contrary, need to invest in sport. »
The one who was Executive Director Impact and Legacy at the Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Cojop) took the example of the London Olympics to support her argument: “We said for years that we did not want to reproduce the precedent from London 2012, which reduced its sports budget after the Olympics. As in France, there had been a huge enthusiasm for joining the clubs, which had not been able to materialize, due to a lack of means, equipment and supervisors. Let's not make the same mistake. I said it to the Senate, to the Prime Minister and to Bercy. »
-Strong mobilization of athletes
This new cut in the sports budget, temporarily stopped in the Senate, has aroused the indignation of many athletes. 425 of them have also published an article in The Team by launching an appeal to Emmanuel Macron and François Bayrou. “If they are validated, these drastic cuts will have serious consequences. It's not just an economy, it's a sabotage of living together! With the Games, we have proven that sport is a powerful lever for education, health, social bonds and physical and psychological well-being. » »
“I hear this strong mobilization of associations, clubs, communities and also athletes, I salute their commitment,” reacts Marie Barsacq. They fulfilled their mission by bringing back medals, inspiring the French, making them want to play sport; It’s up to us to fulfill ours by preserving this heritage. It would be a huge waste not to give ourselves the means to benefit from the impact of the Games.
