“Support your athlete”, an online platform to finance high-level athletes

The French Sports Foundation is launching a platform to bring together all the prize pools of French athletes and allow small businesses to participate financially in a sports project while being tax-exempt, which was not the case before.

Facing Les Invalides on July 29, Thomas Chirault and his two teammates became Olympic vice-champions in the archery team. Behind this silver medal, there are years of work and financial sacrifices. “I left my family home at 14says Thomas Chirault. So, I joined a training structure. My family financed all of this training because my parents didn’t necessarily have the means to support all of this demand.”

And it’s even more difficult in so-called “equipment” sports. For example in sailing, Manon Peyre, 22, is junior world champion and is aiming for her first Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028. But part of her time, she must devote to business groupings and to canvassing again and again. Again. “I try to go see people, give business cards, explain in a few minutes what I doexplains Manon Peyre. But it’s true that there are quite a few times when it doesn’t necessarily work. I’m not necessarily talking to the right person.”

Faced with these difficulties, athletes then find themselves creating a pot to finance their journey. There were 120 between 2023 and 2024. These overly precarious athletes are trying to raise funds from individuals or businesses in their regions with varying success and sometimes somewhat confusing messages. From now on, these fundraisers will be able to be done with the support of the French Sports Foundation which is creating the “Soutiens ton sportif” platform.

On this platform, small businesses, even very small ones, can give without commitment, without sponsorship contract, even modest sums by credit card immediately tax-free from 60 to 75%. But above all, the platform allows you to give credit to the prize pools it hosts. “The athletes presented on this platform are pre-selected by the institutions. Ultimately, for them, it is a form of guarantee that these athletes are committed to an international competition project”explains Charlotte Feraille, general director of the French sports foundation.

In a context of budget cuts at the Ministry of Sports and in the communities. The private sector can take over, particularly through CSR policies and corporate social responsibility. “Sport is rarely seen as a CSR object because when we talk about sport, we always have in mind the footballer who earns millions and therefore we do not say to ourselves that sport is mainly about top athletes. level with amateur statuses” indicates Charlotte Feraille. Today, around fifteen prize pools are already hosted by the platform.