An announcement which greatly disappointed the Olympic champion… In September 2023, Emmanuel Macron announced his desire to generalize the implementation of the two additional hours of sports per week at collegein addition to physical education and sports classes. The President of the Republic had expressed his wish to “building a sporting nation” after the Paris Olympic Games.
Ultimately, this will not be implemented.
Thursday November 14, 2024, Léon Marchand shared on X (ex-Twitter), an article from L'Équipe which announces that the project has been abandoned. As indicated by the Ministry of National Education on its site, it was in fact not “not sustainable”. These two additional hours will thus be refocused “only on colleges classified as REP/REP +, territories where the license rate is the lowest. The target audience is maintained in its definition and the school community is given more responsibility in its deployment”.
Anne Genetet: “We are not abandoning this ambition”
While the Olympic champion shared this article by adding an emoji in the shape of a clown face, Anne Genetet, Minister of National Education, immediately responded to him.
“Dear Léon Marchand. We are not abandoning this ambition, quite the contrary: we adapt it to make it more efficient. Fairer. Fairer for the working classes: sports practice at school is now strengthened and targeted at priority education establishments, where students practice sport the least due to lack of resources.she began.
Secondly, the Minister of National Education added: “We support those who need it mostto get more young people moving every day in our classes, our gymnasiums, our swimming pools and our stadiums”. If Léon Marchand did not respond to these comments, many Internet users reacted.
Angry Internet users
In the comments section, we can read: “Léon Marchand is lucky, a response from the minister in less than three hours! When we are insulted by Nicolas Sarkozy, it takes several days for her to stammer out a few words.” ; or again: “You can also contact the teachers directly! Unless Léon has become a PE teacher in the meantime?”.
Others added: “You are quicker to respond to the remark of a medal-winning athlete who doubts your promises, than to defend your troops in the face of the insulting remarks of a former president condemned by the courts. We take note of your priorities” ;
“Nothing else to do but answer him honestly?“ ; but also : “Fun detail: she puts National Education under water, but she prefers to respond to a swimmer”.
