France is not yet an official candidate for the 2024 Summer Games. It may be at the end of the year. Or maybe not. But one thing is certain: French sport is preparing for it. At the initiative of the CNOSF and the CFSI (French International Sports Committee), around twenty managers, technical executives and former athletes were trained, between December and May, to invest in the international sports movement. Or, for the most seasoned among them, to gain influence. Code name for this operation, carried out with a certain discretion by Bernard Lapasset, the boss of the CFSI, and his second in command Michaël Aloïsio: “International ambition course”.
This “task force” of French sport, made up of around twenty people, was formed after a call for applications from the French federations. According to Michaël Aloïsio, the applicants were “around four times more numerous” than the places available. It was brought together for a first two-day seminar in December 2013. Three others followed. The last one on the list completed the operation on Wednesday May 14 and Thursday May 15, 2014.
Names? Isabelle Lamour, the president of the French Fencing Federation, Roger Piarulli and Richard Remaud, her counterparts in taekwondo and badminton, Emmanuelle Assmann, the president of the French Paralympic and Sports Committee, Cyrille Boulongne-Evtouchenko, the DTN of volleyball , Michel Huet, the Deputy Secretary General of the International Judo Federation, but also three former Olympic medalists, Marie-José Pérec, Jean-Philippe Gatien and Edgar Grospiron.
The training in question revolved around three themes: explaining the international sporting environment, structuring an approach abroad and learning the rules and finer points of global lobbying and communication. For this, Bernard Lapasset and Michaël Aloïsio cast a wide net when listing the speakers. Let us cite, in bulk, the Swiss Denis Oswald, historic member of the IOC and future former president of FISA, the Frenchman Jean-Christophe Rolland, his successor at the head of world rowing, but also representatives of the economic world (GDF Suez , Vinci…) and, above all, a range of Olympic lobbying specialists: John Tibbs for the JTA agency, Terrence Burns for Teneo, Mike Lee for Vero communications and Nick Varley for Seven46.
The French “seminarians” listened, wrote down and learned the lessons. Michel Huet says: “External interventions have pushed us to question our international strategy. I particularly remember the speech by Terrence Burns who told us to stop talking to ourselves. “You’re not the target,” he insisted. It was also often discussed that we made the mistake of constantly quoting Coubertin in all our Olympic comments. We must look to the future, stopping once and for all highlighting the anniversaries of the past. »
Olympic candidacy or not, the “international ambition course” is intended to be long-term. A second group of “pilot fish” will be formed next year, then a third the following year.
