Athletes, even parents, will be able to benefit from an exemption during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games

It’s the first time, but it probably won’t be the last. Since Clarisse Agbegnenou, two-time Olympic champion, asked Emmanuel Macron to be able to keep her daughter with her during the Olympic Games, the French Olympic Committee has made a decision: athletes – parents – who wish to do so will be able to sleep in private rooms. hotel with their child, outside the Olympic village.

A hotel available to mothers and fathers

If this announcement may perplex those who do not understand why children cannot be hosted within the Olympic village itself, it is necessary to recontextualize: historically the Olympic village is reserved for athletes. Naturally, the staff who follow them, such as athletic trainers, coaches, the medical team, psychologists, and presidents of the federations are not involved, thanks to guest passes. But for the athletes, the Olympic village is a refuge that allows them to concentrate exclusively on their disciplines, forgetting and putting aside the outside world, during the Olympic Games.

Accreditations are possible during the day for children of athletes, but they cannot sleep there. This year, however, things change a little for mothers and fathers who have small children, and more particularly for mothers who breastfeed: they will have the opportunity to sleep outside the Olympic village, with their family. The dedicated place is not far away, a few hundred meters, in the Pleyel hotel in Seine-Saint-Denis.

This hotel, which will be made available when the Olympic Village opens on 18 July 2024, will also include a 100m2 space dedicated to families, so that athletes can spend time with their children if they wish.

One step closer to considering parenthood

Although the implementation of this system may surprise, it is nevertheless very important: not all athletes want to be cut off from everything during the Games, on the contrary. Both mothers and fathers. As stated by Julien Mertine, Olympic foil champion in Tokyo The group :

I can’t imagine for a single moment experiencing the Games without having my children by my side; With them I recharge my batteries. (…) You can be physically ready, but the psychological aspect is very important. I am very happy that the system put in place concerns fathers, because I am also as involved as my wife with the children.

For Astrid Guyart, general secretary of the CNOSF (French National Olympic and Sports Committee), this system family hotel would allow us to offer “the best conditions of equilibrium »:

We wanted to go beyond the issue of breastfeeding to allow all the mothers and fathers of the French delegation to participate in the competition in the best conditions. This is a real social issue that we need to take into account.

Astrid Guyart in Le Parisien

Athletes have the choice: to reside in this hotel, partially or not, depending on their needs during the world competition. Astrid Guyart, also a former athlete, justifies this system based on her own experience:

Sometimes we think we won’t need it, but when we spend a week waiting in the village, we realize that it’s a long time and that we miss our loved ones. We therefore offer a choice. Not everyone will do it, but we make it possible.

Astrid Guyart in Le Parisien

As Manon Genest, the first French medalist at the 2023 World Athletics Championships for disabled people, declared to her colleagues at Parisianregarding the continuity of breastfeeding during games:

I am reassured and calm and can prepare for my Games in good conditions. Breastfeeding until the Games is a lifestyle choice, I need it and so does my daughter. Even though she is almost two years old, she sometimes needs you to nurse her at night, as soon as her environment changes a little. This is why I asked to be “in the back”. She is part of the performance. If we know that our child feels well, our performance will be even better.

Have the choice and be supported. Isn’t this the basis of all fulfilling parenting? This system, we hope, will allow athletes to compete with complete peace of mind and win all possible medals.