meeting with Francis Husson, one of the chaplains who will officiate during the Paris 2024 Games

As at every Olympic and Paralympic Games, religious figures will be present at Paris 2024 to accompany athletes who wish to do so. Meeting with a chaplain, who has already officiated at several sports competitions.

Whether they are Catholic, Muslim, Jewish or Buddhist, religious athletes who wish to do so will have the opportunity to consult their spiritual advisor throughout the Paris Games this summer. This support has been provided for in the regulations of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for years.

Francis Husson, Protestant chaplain, will be present in the center multi-faith installed by the Organizing Committee, next to the Olympic Village, in Saint-Denis. He has already participated in the Seoul Games in 1988, and the Winter Games in Albertville in 1992, as well as in national and world championships. Between strong memories and duty to accompany, he tells us about his experience.

franceinfo: Why is your presence important during this type of competition?

Francis Husson: You have to know that the Olympic Games are something stressful for them, it is the culmination of an entire career. So it is important for them to be able to talk with someone who is outside their sporting circle. There is then a freedom of speech which is important.

Our job is to be there and respond to the people who come to see us. That’s the main part of our activity. We don’t move around the village much, except to go eat, do some shopping. But overall, most of our presence will be in the multi-faith center. So there, anything can happen.

What are your most vivid memories of these experiences?

There are several. During the Albertville Games, the coach of the Soviet Union women’s figure skating team came to the chaplaincy and asked for baptism. There was the Orthodox chaplain there, and he baptized her. The ceremony took place in the Catholic church that was next to our duty room. So here it is, in the Catholic church of Brides-les-Bains [où logeaient les aumôniers pendant les Jeux d’Albertville]there was an Orthodox baptism. It was a very interesting experience, very special, a mixture of two Christian streams in one place.

Unfortunately, we also had a much less pleasant event: a young downhill skier who had an accident during training and was killed. There was a religious ceremony in his honor.

“But we’re not just here for the athletes. We’re also here for the coaches, the physios, the staff who are around.”

Francis Husson, chaplain

to franceinfo

And then one day, during the Seoul Games, with other pastors, we went to a missionary couple’s house. When we got to the door, we saw three big guys coming out of the house. We said hello to them, and I shook one of them’s hands, and I looked up, and I said to myself, ‘But I know him.’ And it was Carl Lewis. [athlète américain qui a remporté neuf médailles d’or olympiques entre les années 1980 et 1990]. He actually lived there. It was impressive.

What do athletes talk to you about when they come to you?

About everything that concerns them, not just the sporting aspect of the competition. There was a former athlete who came to see me at one of the Olympic Games offices, confiding that when she was a teenager, she had been sexually abused by her coach. From there, there was work to be done with her. Sometimes things happen to us that we don’t plan for.

What is it like to exercise in such a context, with celebrities, in the midst of sporting emulation?

Our priority is to take care of people. But it’s true that we’re all sports fans. There are about twenty of us Protestant chaplains at the Games this summer. During the downtime, we’ll watch the competitions, and a lot of athletics. When I was a teenager, I did some. Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ll have access to the tracks!