In a few days, the medal counter will start for our athletes competing in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. What will be France’s final ranking? Which national athletes will win a title? Which ones will be pushed back just off the podium?
This is an opportune moment to ask ourselves how to make France an even greater nation of athletes. We have known for a long time now one of the springs that would certainly allow us to win more medals: giving young hopefuls the opportunity to successfully complete a sports-study project in good conditions. More young people involved in high-level sport means mathematically more chances of medals!
It is unfortunately estimated that 30% of athletes decide to stop practicing at a high level because they cannot combine it with their studiesHowever, the years spent organising these Olympic Games have not sufficiently enabled this question to emerge in the public debate: how can we better reconcile sport and studies to allow our young people not to have to choose?
Philippe Coleon is the head of Acadomia, an educational support organization.
© / DR
Yet it is obvious. The champion of tomorrow is the schoolboy of today. The question is therefore not only, for sports federations, to know how to detect him and make him perform, but also to do everything possible so that he can develop his talent in conditions that allow him to combine his passion and his schooling. Beyond that, it is also a question of ensuring that the young middle school or high school student who trains several hours a day can, at the same time, follow an almost normal schooling.
This dimension is crucial because many parents hesitate to take the risk of mortgaging their child’s future by making the risky bet of sporting success. Indeed, among these enthusiasts, few will have the chance to be part of the elite of professional athletes living from their passion. The challenge of quality education is multiple: allowing everyone to prepare for their future, whether they become professionals or not; being able to lay the foundations for a future reconversion, for those who will have a sporting career; and giving future champions the means to train as citizens. Citizens called upon to become role models, especially for the youngest.
Create an educational model where passion and school are compatible
For the families concerned, several obstacles are often mentioned: the difficulty of reconciling school and sports schedules (training, competitions in places that are sometimes very far away, etc.), managing travel, being separated in the case of training centers or even managing physical and mental fatigue.
Fortunately, things are changing for the better. More and more federations (tennis, golf, etc.) or sports clubs are innovating and giving importance to the quality of teaching by planning timetables to allow sufficient time for rest and school work, or even essential family time.
It is important to go further to encourage these practices and create, in France, an educational model where passion and school are compatible.
As players in sport and education, many of us are convinced that sport, and passion in general, is a driving force for success, serving skills and values such as self-confidence, learning from failure, perseverance and collective spirit.
More than ever, in today’s society, our young people need to flourish and dream.
Sport is one of the ways, along with culture or music, to make human beings better. Let us dream, with these 2024 Games, of giving sport the place it deserves and our country the champions and role models of tomorrow!