Spring 2022 will go down in history as a season of unprecedented sporting excitement. After two long years of deprivation, a wave of joy resounds again in the gymnasiums of Quebec. Victory or defeat, everyone exults to take part in it; to play.
Posted at 1:00 p.m.
Faced with such boiling, some might conclude that the sport has gotten back in the saddle. Admittedly, the enthusiastic recovery is encouraging. However, this burst of life is the result of the efforts of a community which, despite exhaustion, shortages and chronic underfunding, has rolled up its sleeves brilliantly.
Let’s face it. The announced lifting of restrictions will not solve all the ills of the sport. Like health, education, economy and culture, the damage inflicted by COVID-19 is proving profound. Everywhere, the same watchword will ring out: catch up.
The last CAQ budget unveiled with great fanfare investments of 250 million over five years devoted to sport. Although welcome, this money will not solve everything. Moreover, calls for a paradigm shift have recently multiplied. Beyond the unhealthy culture, the abuses and the obsession with medals, it is the excessive professionalization that is in question.
If there is one thing that the pandemic has brought to light, it is the notorious positive effect of sport. It now seems obvious that it constitutes an unparalleled public health tool, an incubator of social cohesion and a powerful educational motivator. However, while the elite has maintained its achievements, the amateur section has meanwhile retreated radically.
As proof, the sedentary lifestyle has exploded. Dropping out of sport has also increased, especially among girls, as demonstrated by the organization Femmes et sport au Canada.
For all these reasons, Quebec would benefit from emulating a nation like Norway, which concentrates its efforts at the base of the pyramid and accomplishes miracles thanks to a participatory approach. Such an avenue would make it possible to effectively tackle the major problems of motor illiteracy, physical inactivity and the lack of sporting sustainability that would extend beyond the famous “retirement” mentioned by Patrick Lagacé in his touching chronicle. Ultimately, therefore, it is a question of developing a culture that encourages the love of sport for all, by multiplying the categories, promoting inclusive sports and improving the offer for adults.
The dazzling democratization of knowledge that took place during the Quiet Revolution should inspire the world of sport in this metamorphosis.
In principle, every student should leave school with basic psychomotor skills allowing them to continue their development. Admittedly, Quebec still has a long way to go in order to nurture a love of reading, but it is clear that its illiteracy rate has shrunk dramatically. On the other hand, we tolerate that many pupils draw a cross very early on motor skills, with the consequences that we know.
Ideally, national education should allow each child to evolve in everything, in what Vygotsky calls the zone of proximal development; this area located just above our skills, which promotes learning from comfort. The elitist approach to sport pushes many young people to give up, because everything seems too difficult for them. Conversely, the school has become so democratized that many students admit to being under-stimulated and bored. Impossible to end this plea for amateurism without throwing a few flowers at the sporting world, the last bastion of a culture of effort and surpassing oneself. Undoubtedly, these two worlds would benefit from influencing each other so that the first forms more ordinary sportsmen, and the second, more school champions.