Marie Barsacq appointed Minister of Sports in the François Bayrou government

It will still float like an air of Paris 2024 in the mysteries of power. The government of Prime Minister François Bayrou was announced on Monday, and will include Marie Barsacq as Minister of Sports. She succeeds Gil Avérous, who was not reappointed. In recent years, Barsacq was the Impact and Legacy Director of the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games. She will take on her new functions during the transfer of power, and during a first council of ministers on January 3.

For the world of sport, this appointment can be viewed favorably, while the post-Paris 2024 context could raise fears of the return of Sports to the government's second priority. After Laura Flessel, Roxana Maracineanu, Amélie Oudéa-Castera and the short-lived Gil Avérous, who did not survive the censorship of the Barnier government, Marie Barsacq will indeed be a full minister. She will have expanded responsibilities since she will also be responsible for Youth and Community Life.

The arrival of Marie Barsacq, a former lawyer, to François Bayrou's government looks like an extension of her participation in the life of the ruling sports organizations in France. In addition to his participation in the Paris Olympic Games committee since 2015, Barsacq had also worked at the French National Olympic and Sports Committee, and at the French Football Federation. She returned to the FFF, within its executive committee at the end of 2018, in charge of amateur football.

The Ministry of Sports will not lack its projects. Extending the achievements of Paris 2024 will not be an easy task, while the overall Sports budget has been cut by almost 15% for 2025 (credits for the high level are however maintained). Health sport, sport at school, or even in-depth work on performance, the files which had been his during the preparation of the Paris meeting will also partly be those of his new functions. She notably pleaded during the last Olympics for a program of 30 minutes of daily physical activity in the school setting.

She will also be eagerly awaited on the thorny organization of the 2030 Games. The Olympic and Paralympic world is impatiently awaiting the appointment of the leadership of the organizing committee assigned to the French Alps. The end of the designation process has been postponed “towards 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.

Among the other files, she will also be expected on tensions in the football stands and homophobic chants still coming down from the stands, issues which have made the news again in recent months. In addition to the Games, sports federations are also in the process of renewing their management.