A lawyer by training, Marie Barsacq joined the government of François Bayrou as Minister of Sports, Youth and Community Life.
She will be keen to preserve the legacy of the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games, for which she worked for more than eight years.
His name is unknown to the general public. But Marie Barsacq worked in the shadows for eight years to ensure that the Paris 2024 Games were a success well beyond the time reserved for the competition. Member of the organizing committee chaired by Tony Estanguet, she let herself be tempted by the political adventure by joining the first government appointed by François Bayrou this Monday, December 23. The 51-year-old former lawyer succeeds the mayor of Châteauroux, Gil Avérous, as Minister of Sports, Youth and Community Life.
Olympic 2030 objective
Marie Barsacq knows the major institutions of French sport well. She worked for ten years at the French National Olympic Sports Committee (CNOSF) on employment and training issues. Member of the executive committee of the French Football Federation until the recent elections, she was in charge of amateur football and notably created the Football Training Institute. Within Paris 2024, she held the position of Executive Director Impact and Legacy in order to ensure the longevity of the event beyond the infrastructures.
“We support programs that use sport as a lever to make things happen on different fronts: such as gender parity, the fight against a sedentary lifestyle, even the opening of economic opportunities for remote populations…”she declared in an interview with Marie Claire (new window). The Generation 2024 label was notably deployed to offer educational establishments “the different actions that contribute to the legacy of the Games”. Marie Barsacq is particularly involved in practicing 30 minutes of daily physical activity at school.
Among the other major files that it will have to manage is obviously the preparation of the 2030 Winter Olympics in the French Alps. The end of the process of designating the organizing committee has been postponed “around the end of January”a source close to the negotiations told AFP in mid-December, with the underlying hypothesis of a ticket associating Martin Fourcade with Michel Barnier.
The new Minister of Sports will also be expected to address the tensions in the football stands, where homophobic chants are increasing.
The 2025 budget prepared by the Barnier government but censored provided for a clear reduction in funds granted to sport, while maintaining those for the high level.
