Is this a Paris 2024 effect? Less than eight months before the Olympic Games, something is happening in French sports. She gets agitated. She shows herself. Above all, she gets organized.
At the end of last month, the creation in Paris, in the premises of the Wallonia-Brussels delegation, of the first network of influencers for a sporting Francophonie was announced. It has around sixty members. At the helm, Daniel Zielinski, the ministerial delegate for the Francophonie at the French Ministry of Sports and the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
At the same time, representatives of 13 French-speaking sports unions met in Espalion, a town in Aveyron (France), to celebrate the birth of their international association (AIUSF). It brings together disciplines as diverse as athletics, skateboarding, badminton, fencing, wrestling, squash, surfing, taekwondo, tennis, table tennis, archery, triathlon and adapted sport.
A coincidence of the calendar or a real renaissance of the sporting French-speaking world? FrancsJeux questioned Daniel Zielinski, also a senior official in French for sport.
FrancsJeux : How was the idea of creating a network of influencers for a sporting Francophonie born?
Daniel Zielinski : This initiative is part of a broader mission entrusted to me by the French Ministries of Sports and Culture, and the State Secretariat for La Francophonie. It goes beyond the sole perspective of the Paris 2024 Games to extend beyond, to ensure that everything does not stop after September 8, the day after the end of the Paralympic Games. At the end of November, we brought around sixty people around the table, all stakeholders in French-speaking sports: business leaders, presidents of international sports federations, representatives of institutions, ministries and diplomacy, athletes... They felt a little isolated, they didn't necessarily know each other. We brought them together so that they could talk to each other and discuss the obstacles they encounter today, their expectations, their objectives. With a central question: what must be put in place for a better sporting Francophonie.
Concretely, what can this network of influencers do?
We have recommended 24 avenues for work and reflection. The first are technical. The drafting of a guide to good linguistic practices, for example, or better promotion of the French language in international bodies, very few of which have a French version of their website. We will also create with the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF) and the Agence universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF) a Master’s degree in management and organization of major international sporting events (GESI). There is a lack of skills today, we can help create executives in French. The second recommendation is political. It involves collaboration with ministries and diplomacy. It will take longer.
Does this network reflect the sporting Francophonie in its international diversity?
Today, its members are mainly French. But we launched it to the Wallonia-Brussels delegation to involve Belgium. The network already has African representatives. We couldn't get any Canadians, but they will come. We have initiated the first 60 members, but it is not a closed club. The network will be nourished, it will enrich and strengthen thanks to the commitment of everyone to find other influencers. We wanted to strike a first blow. The idea now is to meet at least once a year, twice in 2024, for the Paris Games and the Francophonie Summit, also organized in Paris in October.
The International Association of French-speaking Sports Unions has also just been created. Is it a coincidence of timing?
It’s a coincidence, yes, but the two entities are already linked. Several members of these French-speaking sports unions are members of the network. Their presidents will be influencers. The objective of this association is to improve the presence of French speakers in international bodies. It must be understood that these initiatives are not limited to a greater presence of the French language in the international sports movement. They respond to a strategy. Sports is an important market. We must attack it in French.
With the Paris 2024 Games, then the YOG in Dakar in 2026, the 2030 Winter Games in the French Alps and, undoubtedly, the 2038 Winter Games in Switzerland, will the sporting Francophonie experience its best years ?
Certainly. But we shouldn't just look at the Olympic events. Africa, in particular, is hosting more and more major events. The DRC organized the Francophonie Games this year, Rwanda will host the road cycling world championships in 2025. But there is a lack of skills, hence our idea of creating a Master’s degree for GESIs. Armenia should normally be chosen as the host country for the Francophonie Games in 2027. It would be very interesting to be able to train Armenian executives in French.
