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Appointed head of the Sports portfolio in the new Barnier government this Saturday, September 21, the ex-LR mayor of Châteauroux will have the main mission of surfing the post-Olympic period to continue to develop sports in the country.
This is one of the surprises of the new government announced this Saturday, September 21 evening. Gil Avérous, mayor of Chateauroux, succeeds as Minister of Sports to Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, thanked by Michel Barnier a few days earlier at the end of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, whom the resigning minister accompanied this summer while awaiting her successor.
The 51-year-old right-wing local elected official takes over at a pivotal moment in the five-year term for sport, the great national cause of 2024, just a few days after the end of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, on which the country must surf to develop sports practice throughout France and among all audiences. “Let’s keep the Olympic spirit!” ordered Michel Barnier on September 15, the day after the parade of champions organized on the Champs-Elysées.
The “JO effect” expected for the start of the sports season (between 2 and 2.5 million additional licensees “AOC” hoped for) must be supported by the State. It is now up to Gil Avérous to promote access to sports practice, particularly for the youngest and most vulnerable, by helping sports structures and clubs, often in tight flow with supervisory staff, to absorb this new influx of licensed.
He will also have to – this will be the least complicated – ensure the proper monitoring and even improvement of the measures already introduced by his predecessors, such as thirty minutes of sport per day at school or the expansion of the “sport pass” , this financial aid system which currently benefits 1.5 million young graduates with a contribution of 50 euros for a license.
Gil Avérous will also have to work to fulfill the other objectives set by Emmanuel Macron, in particular the development of more than 500 sports-health centers and that of corporate sport, two other measures planned in the program presented in 2022.
And then, during his wishes to the sports movement on January 25, the president also insisted on the financing of more than 5,000 jobs by the National Sports Agency and 15,000 civic services focused on sport as well as the development of training for the 3.5 million volunteers who work for sport.
