The timing is careful. Six months before the opening of the Paris 2024 Games, the French Ministry of the Armed Forces announces the launch of a website dedicated to the Olympic and Paralympic event. A form of evidence for a major player in elite sport in France, self-proclaimed “ first contributor of the State to the support of high-level sport ». The Ministry of the Armed Forces recalls this in a press release: it currently lists 200 able-bodied high-level athletes among its civilian and military personnel, but also disabled sports athletes, under civilian status, engaged within the general secretariat for administration. For everyone, it provides remuneration, professional training and support in the event of injury. At the Tokyo 2020 Games, his “ army of champions » won a third of the French delegation's medals, half of which were gold. Since the first Games of the modern era, in Athens in 1896, more than half of French medals have been won by military athletes.
