Every year, during Olympic and Paralympic Week, schoolchildren and students discover the spirit of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Introductory parasport workshops, site visits, meetings with real-life champions... Team EDF athletes were on hand for the event.
Raising pupils' and students' awareness of the values of sport: that's the aim of Olympic and Paralympic Week. This year, over 11,500 schools took part in this event organized by the French Ministry of Education... that's over 2 million young people!
With the Paris 2024 Games just a few months away, the event had a special flavor. For Team EDF athletes, it was another opportunity to share their passion for sport with the public. And they love it! Here's a look back at a week full of great encounters...
Experiment with parasport
On April 3 in Orléans, Maxime Montaggioni played the role of teacher. In front of him, 120 students, captivated by his career and achievements. And with good reason: Maxime first made a name for himself in taekwondo, winning a bronze medal at the 2013 World Championships. Driven by passion and the desire to take on new challenges, he then embarked on a new sporting career, in snowboarding. Here too, the medals soon followed.
This exceptional meeting was organized as part of one of the "Un champion dans ma grande école" days. The aim was to encourage young people to take a fresh look at disability and para-sport. Maxime Montaggioni is well placed to talk about this. Suffering from a malformation of the right forearm, he is the perfect embodiment of the resilience and self-transcendence shown by Paralympic champions. Faced with students who were questioning and hesitating before embarking on their careers, his message was perfectly received: trust yourself and give it your all.
And because nothing beats practice, the students were able to try out some new sensations... Few of them had ever played wheelchair basketball, boccia, para table tennis or para shooting before. "These days are an opportunity to confront young people with real-life situations of disability through sporting activities, to change their outlook," explains Maxime Montaggioni.
Unseen Samy, the content creator who brings a different perspective to sport, was present. With him,
- listen to Maxime Montaggioni explain "how you can become a fan of Paralympic athletes";
- discover a selection of the day's best moments.
Discover an exceptional Olympic site with a champion
At the same time in Seine-et-Marne, 1,200 students met Olympic and three-time world canoeing champion Denis Gargaud Chanut. The setting? Not a classroom, but a world dedicated to water sports: the Stade Nautique de Vaires-sur-Marne. Designed with the assistance of a specialist subsidiary of the EDF Group, this site will host the Paris 2024 rowing, canoe slalom and canoe sprint events. The venue is impressive: equipped with modular facilities, its configuration can evolve according to the sporting disciplines. This is why it is one of only three venues in the world capable of hosting both Olympic and Paralympic kayaking and rowing events.
In the presence of Tony Estanguet and guided by Denis, the youngsters discovered the inner workings of the facility. This summer, more than 1,000 Olympic and Paralympic athletes will take part in 28 competition sessions... The youngsters are already dreaming of it!
Photo credits: Géraldine Aresteanu (shots of the "A champion in my high school" day)