how the Paralympic Games want to contribute to changing the perception of disability

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Place de la Bastille is preparing to host, on Saturday October 8, the first Paralympic day in history. A para-sporting version of the traditional Olympic day – which takes over the streets of the capital every June 23 – the event aims to bring more visibility to the disciplines that will be present at the Paris 2024 Games.

This day is of significant importance for the parasport movement, which most of the time suffers from an obvious lack of visibility. This first beam of light therefore intends to familiarize a public with little knowledge before the start of the festivities in a little less than two years. Above all, it is a means of informing as widely as possible about the change of perspective to be given to people with disabilities. An ambition claimed by the Organizing Committee, and which is at the center of the legacy program of the Parisian Games.

Facilitate the practice of sport for people with disabilities

According to a 2018 sport handicap study, 48% of people with disabilities do not practice physical activity and sports. No need to look any further for one of the strong points targeted by Paris 2024 with a view to the next Paralympic Games, but also in the longer term.

Another survey carried out by the Research Observatory on Mega-events (Orme) in 2019 highlighted that 38% of licensees in parasport sections encountered difficulties in finding a club adapted to their handicap. To deal with these problems, the Organizing Committee and the French Paralympic and Sports Committee (CPSF) have set up para-welcoming training to help clubs and educators welcome people with disabilities in more of disciplines.

At the end of July, Emmanuel Macron himself announced the creation of 3,000 para-welcoming sections by 2024. “The idea is that nearby, we can find a practice offer that corresponds to his disability and the desire of the person”adds Marie Barsacq, Impact and Legacy Director within the Organizing Committee.

To pursue this objective, Paris 2024 has set up, in parallel, a program intended to cover the entire national territory. Called “Explore Terre de Jeux”, this label has been granted since 2020 to cities that are part of a para-sports approach. The idea is to encourage them to create para-welcoming walking routes, in order to allow people who are often not very mobile to take up sport.

In this concern to open up the practice of sport, an “Impact 2024” endowment fund has been created to support structures generating social innovation through sport. Funding has been granted, as for example in Marseille around the “Sports handi nautiques Corbière” system, which introduces people with disabilities to nautical disciplines.

Improving accessibility, a central issue in the fight against exclusion

The problem of accessibility is on everyone’s lips of those who are working to set up the Paralympic Games in two years. However, will we see tomorrow, almost everywhere in France, PMR access (persons with reduced mobility) at each metro, bus or tram station? Will all establishments open to the public (ERP) be universally accessible after 2024? Not to mention a more inclusive job market for people with disabilities?

“We want to tend towards that in any case, towards a better consideration of disability in our society”, confesses Jean-Louis Garcia, president of the Association for adults and young people with disabilities (Apajh) since 2008. According to him, everyone has a role to play in this acculturation through sport and the Paris Games. Recently, the catering company Sodexo approached the Apajh in order to hire members of the association for eight-week fixed-term contracts to help supply the athletes’ village during the Olympic Games. and Paralympics. A handicap-friendly approach which, he hopes, will be emulated.

Raising awareness from an early age through school

Quadruple Paralympic judo medalist (visually impaired category), Sandrine Martinet wants to emphasize the role of schools in the process of recognizing disabilities. “I hope more than anything that we can leave something to young people after Paris 2024. Because sport is a school of life that allows you to restore all your values ​​to surpassing yourself, to the notion of effort, which allows you to be proud of yourself regardless of the level and regardless of whether you have a disability or not.”

With this in mind, the Ministry of National Education has included Olympic and Paralympic Week (SOP) on the calendar since 2017. For a few days, teachers and their students design projects around parasport, get to know often overlooked French champions and talk about taking disability into account. “Thanks to this SOP, complete Marie Barsacq, we are going to talk to children who will be three years old as well as to students. It’s a pretty strong legacy.” Next year (April 3-8, 2023), it will be entirely dedicated to inclusion and the promotion of the Paralympic Games.

Another tool put in place – with a new label, “Generation 2024” – in schools since the start of the 2022 school year, the 30 minutes of daily physical activity are struggling to find their place. Attention is paid to practice “in inclusion with young people with disabilities”we explain on the side of Paris 2024, the latter often being excluded from the traditional hours of EPS.

Children try their hand at sitting volleyball, a Paralympic discipline since 1980, on Place de la Concorde in Paris on Olympic Day, June 23, 2019. (LAURE BOYER / HANS LUCAS)

Take advantage of a global window to change mentalities

For 12 days, from August 28 to September 8, 2024, the media exposure of Paralympic athletes will be international. A golden opportunity to be seized, in particular for the associative fabric working in favor of people with disabilities, which will be able to deploy a massive communication plan to “create awareness”.

The “WeThe15” movement, launched by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) during the Tokyo Games, constitutes a solid base in this respect. Its objective is to put an end to exclusion and discrimination in order to transform the lives of 1.2 billion people with disabilities, or 15% of the world’s population. A global movement that transcends borders and is likely to grow in scope within two years, and even after.

Push for legislative progress

For the president of APF France Handicap, Pascale Ribes, if the political will to want to change things on disability does exist, its concrete implementation leaves something to be desired. In this idea, the Paralympic Games would be a good way to activate certain levers.

“We must use sport because it is a real engine to destroy the walls”she says. “Since the law of June 30, 1975, we began to say that we had to work for disability and accessibility. The law of February 11, 2005, 30 years later, made a huge promise of accessibility to no longer keep people with disabilities out. But in 2015, as there had been no real movement to program this accessibility, the public authorities realized that they were not going to be able to keep their promise. Additional delays have been added. That’s the reason why today we have the feeling that it is not moving forward and we do not know what to do. So let’s hope that these Paralympic Games and this whole movement worldwide will make it possible to achieve progress”. An opinion shared by his Apajh counterpart, Jean-Louis Garcia: “We are not going to let the soufflé fall after 2024. The associative world is also there to bring those who are falling asleep to the facts”.

Last July in L’Equipe, the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron set out his promise: “I want to make these Games an event where we will interest the nation in our Paralympic athletes much more than we did. More generally, these Olympics will be a catalyst for what France does best in the eyes of the world and they will leave us a legacy.” Words written down in black and white by organizations supporting people with disabilities.


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