Olympic and Paralympic Week with the participation of a Gers champion.
The pupils of the primary school of Marciac participate in their Olympic Games with the USEP.
On Wednesday January 26, on the sports field above the Marciac school canteen buildings, all the pupils of the Pardiac primary school gathered to celebrate Sport as part of Olympic and Paralympic Week. Tania Schmidt, the new director of the Marciac school, brings her experience to this approach to education through sports practice. With the USEP, the teachers of the primary school of Pardiac will give a greater place to sport in the daily life of the children of our territory.
All united towards the 2024 goal.
Sport is an issue for everyone. Its virtues, such as Tolerance, Respect, Courage, Team Spirit, are constantly highlighted by the educational team. When Farid El Fergougui and the teachers of Marciac offer students a sporting activity, there is always time to speak up to defend the values of sport.
In 2024, the Olympic Games will be hosted on French territory. The fourth week of the 2022 calendar is therefore placed under the sign of the Olympic rings. On this occasion, the Ministry of National Education, Youth and Sports invited schools to promote Olympic sports and more particularly the Paralympic Games. Wednesday morning, organizers of the Gers Committee of USEP are therefore seen again offering various activities to the children.
Spirit in motion
They first celebrated their Olympic Games by parading. The farandole went to form on the forecourt of the sports field the five rings of the Olympic Games. Then the children were divided into as many groups as there were activities proposed. In turn, they were able to try different sports to illustrate the variety of events that exist within the framework of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Athletes participating in the Paralympic Games belong to three categories: there are of course physically handicapped athletes, victims of amputations or paralysis of the limbs for example. There are also visually impaired and blind athletes. A category also concerns those who suffer from mental or psychological difficulties.
Put yourself in the shoes of a disabled person
Many sports are now adapted to disabled sports: cycling, thanks to manual bicycles, disabled basketball, wheelchair rugby, adapted fencing, adapted hockey, adapted sailing, blind football, etc. It is more particularly Paralympic sports activities that the children were led to discover this week at the school of Marciac with the various speakers.
Wednesday morning, on the sports field, one of the workshops was dedicated to handi-basketball, with “Bouby”, the mascot of the Gers Basketball Committee. It was perhaps the most amazing activity for the children, who had to try to get around in wheelchairs while handling a basketball. Blind football was also in the spotlight, with a sound ball containing bells. Blindfolded to put themselves in the shoes of blind sportsmen, it was not easy for the young children to move around the field and locate the ball, even with the help of their friends.
Gers Olympic Medals: Omar Bouyoucef in Marciac.
The highlight of this week devoted to the Olympic Games was the meeting organized with the Olympic medalist Omar Bouyoucef. Monday January 24, this Auscitain came to meet the children at the school of Marciac, spending a moment in each class. He explained to them his handicap. Omar Bouyoucef lives with a wheelchair, because of polio which deprived him of the use of his legs at the age of 1, when children learn to walk. All the children wanted to see his Olympic medals up close.
Handisport to live better together.
Omar Bouyoucef spoke about disabled sport in the Gers. Various disciplines are practiced in the department. And we have top athletes: lit Twisters d’Also for example. Omar invited the children to attend disabled sports meetings to encourage them. He himself will never forget all those who supported him during his competitions and in particular his fan club which accompanied him to Norway during the Lillehammer Olympics in 1994.
Many students took the floor, emphasizing the meager media coverage of disabled athletes, noting the fact that we always saw the same football teams on television, with their celebrities, but that they had never seen football matches wheelchair football. This meeting allowed the children to discover the possibility of skiing for people with disabilities. They watched a short television report on the ski sledge exploits of Omar Bouyacef and Stéphane Podeaux.
The Paralympic Games.
Handisport was born in 1948 in England, in a military hospital in Stoke Mandeville. It was a German doctor who had the idea. To enable former paraplegic soldiers, veterans of the Second World War, to improve their recovery process, Sir Ludwig Guttmann had the idea of using sport. “Until then, the problem was hopeless, because it was not only necessary to save the lives of these paraplegic and quadriplegic men, women and children, but also it was necessary to restore their dignity and make them happy and respected citizens”.
But it was not until 1960 that disabled sport gained visibility with its inclusion in the Olympic Games. The 9th International Games of Stoke Mandeville are considered the first “Paralympic Games” because they took place in Rome, six days after the closing of the Olympic Games, from September 18 to 25. See https://www.paris2024.org/fr/histoire-jeux-paralympiques/
Omar Bouyoucef Gers champion.
Born in 1969, his career has made Omar Bouyoucef a symbol of disabled sport. He and his Olympic medals contribute to society taking another look at disability. As he explained to young primary school students, sport breaks down barriers and opens up new horizons. He insisted to the schoolchildren on the fact that achieving such results is the fruit of long training.
He discovered the joys of sport at Roquetaillade, the Gers rehabilitation centre, in Montégut, near Auch. Archery and rifle shooting, swimming and athletics, in the 1980s, he gained a certain notoriety in sport. In 1992, it was his opportunity with the Olympic Games in Alberville. He is doing a detection course to participate in the Olympics. He chose skiing, with relay races, biathlon. For his first Olympic Games, he finished sixth with his team in the cross-country ski relay. The consecration came with the gold medal in 1994.
Nicolas Hamon
