The colonial legacy. The sporting results of all countries are strongly determined by their history, through local culture and traditions. Colonialism, in particular, has forged the sporting tradition of many regions of the world, just think of how the British have spread their disciplines in all continents (from rugby in Oceania and South Africa to cricket in the Indian subcontinent).
The former colonial powers then found themselves welcoming the migratory waves from the former coloniesbecoming a privileged destination thanks to the linguistic and cultural ties established over the centuries. France was perhaps the first European country ever, even before Great Britain, to understand how immigrants could become a great sporting resource. As early as 1931in fact, the French national football team called up its first athlete of African origin, precisely Senegalese, Raoul Diagne.
After the independence wave of the 1960s, France still inherited a large number of citizens who opted for the former motherland, rather than the new independent African states. The hexagon has long remained the privileged destination of African emigration, in addition to receiving migratory waves also from Asia and the countries of Eastern and Southern EuropeIncluding Italy. According to the National Institute of Demographic Studies (INED), today at least 40% of French citizens have foreign origins over three generations.
From the colonial era, then, France inherited some territories which, through popular referendums, preferred to remain linked to the motherland, mainly for economic reasons. Today, the so-called France overseas is made up of five overseas departments and regions (DROM, i.e. Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, Réunion, Mayotte) and six overseas communities (COM, i.e. French Polynesia, Saint-Barthélemy, Saint-Martin, Saint-Pierre- et-Miquelon, Wallis-et-Futuna and New Caledonia, which enjoys a special status).
Sport in DROM-COM today. The development of sport in these regions has always been promoted by the Paris government, and French sports authorities soon realized that overseas France could provide great champions in numerous disciplines. To date, official statistics say that sport is much more widespread in these territories than in mainland Franceas also demonstrated by the high quantitative and qualitative presence of high-level sportsmen from DROM-COM.
For some time, numerous sports federations have established gods federal centers located in these territories, destined to bring out local talents without the children having to leave their home from a very young age. The federations undertake to guarantee the same quality of infrastructure as in mainland France, thus promoting a policy of equal opportunities. Only when the children reach an age and a level such as to be able to compete internationally, do they reach INSEP, the monumental multisport center in Paris. This policy has brought great results, given that in Tokyo 2020 sportsmen born or originally from overseas France won twelve gold medalsnine silver and five bronze (including athletes who took part in team tests).
Furthermore, in November 2018, the French Senate released a long analysis document on sport in DROM-COM, in order to further promote high-level sport in these territories in view of the Paris 2024 Olympic deadline. , the Kanner Plan had been launched, named after the socialist senator who had proposed it, which provided for the donation of 80 million euros in the 2016-2020 period for the development of sports equipment in DROM-COM.
The overseas sport development plans also take into consideration the geographical characteristics of each territory, which allow the practice of different disciplines. The DROM-COMs are in fact distributed between the Americas, Africa and Oceania, offering very varied climatic and territorial characteristics, as well as culturalas also demonstrated by the development of some traditional sports disciplines not related to Olympic sport.
Guadeloupe and Martinique. Guadeloupe is certainly the overseas territory that offers the greatest number of champions to France, but Martinique also has its say in terms of Olympic and world successes. The first sport to be developed in the French Caribbean was of course athletics, taking advantage of the explosive characteristics of the Caribbean in the sprint.: originally from Guadeloupe are Christine Arron, still European record holder of the 100 meters, and Marie-José Pérec, winner of three Olympic gold medals; from Martinique instead come Dimitri Bascou, Olympic bronze medalist on 100 hurdles in 2016, and Ronald Pognon, first Frenchman to go below 10 ”on 100 meters.
French sports executives soon understood how the explosive characteristics of the Caribbean would be useful in other disciplines as wellstarting with track cycling, as evidenced by the palmarès of Grégory Baugé (four Olympic medals and nine world titles), sprinter originally from Guadeloupe.
Among the other sports that have had a great development on the islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique, we also find basketball, boxing, swimming, handball and of course football, but the most important results from the Olympic point of view came from fencing and judo. The most famous sportsman from Guadeloupe in the world is certainly Teddy Rinerwhile originally from Martinique, although born in Bordeaux, is Émilie Andéol, Olympic champion of the +78 category in Rio 2016. In fencing, Olympic and world medalists are wasted, given that Guadeloupe and Martinique have proved to be forges of great fencers, especially swordsmen: from Laura Flexel-Colovic (five Olympic medals, two of which gold) to the brothers Fabrice and Jérôme Jeannet, up to Yannick Borel, without forgetting the foil player Ysaora Thibus.
French Guiana. French Guiana had a slower development from a sporting point of view, having initially favored team sports, especially football and basketball (Guyanese is Tariq Abdul-Wahad, the first French to join the NBA). At the Olympic level, the first great satisfactions came from swimming, with the explosion of Malia Metella. In a sport where neither the Caribbean nor the Africans had historically excelled, Malia Metella caused a stir by becoming the first black swimmer to win European, World and Olympic medalsobtaining silver in the 50m freestyle in Athens 2004. The Guyanese tradition in swimming was then continued by his brother Mehdy Metella, silver with the 4 × 100 freestyle at Rio 2016, and today has his new lever in Analia Pigrée , one of the emerging athletes in the back, bronze on the 50 meters at the recent European Championships in Budapest.
Also in fencing, French Guiana has been able to give its precious contribution, expressing great champions such as the swordsman Ulrich Robeiri and the current world foil champion, Enzo Lefort, also winner of team gold in Tokyo 2020.
French Polynesia and New Caledonia. French Polynesia has geographical and cultural characteristics that have allowed the development of sports related to water, especially surfing, but also canoeing. It is no coincidence that the archipelago was chosen as the site of the surfing tests for the 2024 Paris Olympics, demonstrating the desire to fully involve overseas territories in the national sports movement. The French surf team is made up of athletes from both mainland France and Polynesia, and the organizers of Paris 2024 hope to leverage the knowledge of the competition area to allow local representatives to shine. Tahiti also has a national beach soccer team that constantly participates in international competitions, with two world finals reached in 2015 and 2017.
New Caledonia has instead expressed its best talents in swimming, as in the case of Lara Grangeon and Maxime Grousset, and in rugby, with several players of the French national team who come from this island, as well as from the nearby archipelago of Wallis-et- Futuna. To these disciplines is added sailing, a sport in which the best Caledonian representative is currently Thomas Goyard, Olympic silver last year.
Reunion and Mayotte. Réunion offered excellent footballers (Dimitri Payet), but also volleyball players (Stéphen Boyer), rugby players and above all star handball players, such as Daniel Narcisse (two Olympic golds and four world championships) and the most popular handball player in France, Jackson Richardson, leader of the team that made France one of the superpowers of the sport in the 1990s. However, the two islands of the Indian Ocean are the least developed sporting areas of DROM-COMs, and for this reason the French Senate report suggests concentrating efforts to fully develop their potential.
Guadeloupe and French Polynesia at the Winter Olympics. Finally, a little curiosity: two athletes from Guadeloupe, Dorian Hauterville and Jérôme Laporal, took part in the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. Both coming from athletics, they participated together in the 4-a-side bobsleigh test, while Hauterville was the brakeman of the French team also in the 2-man bobsleigh. In Turin 2006 and Vancouver 2010, an athlete native of French Polynesia, Gary Tamatoa, was instead present. Zebrowski, snowboard halfpipe specialist, who was sixth in the Piedmontese edition.
OLYMPIC OVERSEAS MEDALS IN TOKYO 2020
Guadeloupe
Sarah-Léonie Cysique (judo, team gold and silver 57 kg)
Teddy Riner (judo, team gold and bronze +100 kg)
Daryl Bultor (volleyball, men’s team gold)
Allison Pineau (handball, women’s team gold)
Méline Nocandy (handball, women’s team gold)
Océane Sercien-Ugolin (handball, women’s team gold)
Ysaora Thibus (fencing, silver foil women’s team)
Anita Blaze (fencing, silver foil women’s team)
Rudy Gobert (basketball, men’s silver team)
Martinique
Amandine Buchard (judo, team gold and silver 52 kg)
Coralie Lassource (handball, women’s team gold)
Andrew Albicy (basketball, men’s silver team)
Althea Laurin (taekwondo, bronze +67 kg)
Sandrine Gruda (basketball, bronze women’s team)
Iliana Rupert (basketball, bronze women’s team)
French Guiana
Enzo Lefort (fencing, men’s team foil gold)
Béatrice Edwige (handball, women’s team gold medal)
Meeting
Melvyn Richardson (handball, men’s team gold)
Stéphen Boyer (volleyball, men’s team gold)
Caroline Drouin (rugby 7, women’s team silver)
Fanny Horta (rugby 7, silver women’s team)
Donavan Grondin (cycling, madison bronze)
New Caledonia
Thomas Goyard (vela, argento windsurf)
Photo: Lapresse
