Enabling Mulhouse schoolchildren to discover different sports and meet athletes is the objective of Olympic and Paralympic Week, which takes place at the Regional Sports Centre.
“How many medals do you have? How do you transport your horses? On their birthday, what do they eat? » The questions were flying this Tuesday morning, in the auditorium of the Regional Sports Center (CSRA), where a class of CP from the Illberg school met the disabled rider Cloé Mislin, after a volleyball session and before a gym class… “The goal is to introduce people to my sport and tell them to move to stay in shape. This message resonates all the more for me, for whom sport is life-saving and allows me to stay in good health”, explains Cloé Mislin, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease and who is aiming in particular to qualify for the Paralympic Games in Paris in 2024.
“Give them a taste for sport”
And it is precisely thanks to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and the Generation 2024 label, which aims to develop bridges between the school world and the sports movement, that a good twenty Mulhouse classes can discover the sports world this week. “The objective is to make them meet local athletes or not, explains Jean-Michel Dauce, educational advisor in physical education and sports, who coordinates this week. Some were able to meet the disabled swimmer Béatrice Hess, others did visio with champions like Alain Bernard (swimming) or Margot Pinot (judo). But the goal is also for them to practice sports and meet associations, to give them a taste for sport, while promoting Paris 2024! »
Self-transcendence and respect for the rules
And if, according to the pedagogical adviser, “Children do less sport in general and since the pandemic, it’s even worse”, you just have to push open the doors of the CSRA gymnasium to realize that the desire and the need to exercise are always present among these CP students from the Illberg school. On the program for this hour of gym led by Sophie Etterlen, from the Haut-Rhin Departmental Gymnastics Committee, an agility course in the form of a race, which delights children. “They move a lot, it’s important to develop their motor skills, says their teacher, Anne Roussel. This also allows them to understand the values of sport, team spirit, self-transcendence, but also respect for the rules and the opponent, while discovering new disciplines. A mother told me that she hopes her daughter will find happiness, it’s good to allow them to try several disciplines! »
