Little expected. The organizing committee for the Paris 2024 Games has discovered an ambassador in the stars. French astronaut Thomas Pesquet (photo above, right, with Tony Estanguet) has been chosen as sponsor of the 6th edition of the Olympic and Paralympic Week (SOP) at the school, scheduled for January 24-29, some months after being one of the most noted actors in the Parisian sequence at the closing ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Games. He performed the national anthem on the saxophone from the International Space Station (ISS). Back on earth, Thomas Pesquet will encourage French schoolchildren to fight against a sedentary lifestyle by devoting at least 30 minutes a day to physical activity. Launched by the COJO Paris 2024 in September 2020, this national system has already reached nearly 500.000 students, from 21 classes in 7.000 voluntary schools. The operation could be extended to all schools in 2024. For this year, the planned sum of 30 minutes of physical activity carried out during the Olympic and Paralympic Week – estimated at 16 million minutes – should represent the equivalent of the time necessary to make two round trips between the Earth and the Moon.
