France’s sport minster has told the Observer that Paris hosting the Olympics in 2024 will dramatically transform the sporting ecosystem of her country and has hinted that cricket could rejoin the Games in time to be part of the celebrations.
Laura Flessel, who is also France’s most decorated female Olympian, also wants to draw upon lessons from London 2012 to ensure that the government encourages three million more people participating in sport, creates a sustainable legacy and boosts the burgeoning sports economy.
“The dream is almost coming true,” said Flessel, who won five fencing medals before retiring after London 2012. “We still have to wait for ratification on 13 September in Lima but Paris 2024 has almost reached the finishing line. It is like a volcano bubbling over. We want the prestige of France to be shining. We want a very high level of performance, as London has done.”
She added: “I have participated in five Olympic Games and I finished my career at London as a flag-bearer for France. And today I am reaching for the flag again. Not only for our athletes but for millions of French people and for billions of others around the world who like sports.
“We have been working from British experts to better understand how the functioning of the event is managed. We want a very high level of performance, just as London achieved.”
She said that the possibility of cricket being a part of the Games then is something that is on French minds – especially given its huge popularity in India and Pakistan. “There are new disciplines that are going to join the Olympic Games in 2024 and it is also true that cricket is developing in France. We are going to watch developments very closely. So why not?
“And if it works,” she said, smiling, “maybe there will be final between our two countries?”
That was a reference to the fact that Britain beat a French team to win gold in 1900 – the last time that cricket appeared in the Olympics – and is surely to encourage the International Cricket Council, which has started lobbying hard for the sport’s inclusion in future Games.
But Flessel’s strongest motivation in her new role, which she began in May, is to ensure more people in France exercise – and says that she will be doing all she can. “Thanks to the Games, there will be a whole transformation of the ecosystem and sport is going to be integrated in society,” she said. “But the legacy for us does not begin after 2024 – it has already started.
“We want a France that moves. An active France. Today, we have 34 million people that practise sports, but we want three million more. I am going to create 500 sport centres for health. For people who are at a disadvantage, in deprived areas, who have never done any sports or who think they have no money to practise sport.”
That is not the end of her plans. “We are going to appeal to high-level sportspeople to give them an encouragement to coach people and to think of changing when their career is over,” she said. “Another axis is ethics and openness in sports. We want excellence but also responsibility – we don’t want anyone incompetent in the federations.”
Flessel said she welcomes Neymar’s controversial £200.6m transfer from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain and believes the Brazilian’s move can further revitalise French domestic football. “It is an opportunity for France. He is one of the best players in the world and he is going to bring new colours to Ligue 1. PSG must abide by the financial commitments but there is a buzz.
“I was always a supporter of Paris Saint-Germain – now I support all the French teams so I must be neutral. But as minister I am delighted and the finance ministry say he will have to pay his taxes in France. But for France it is a wonderful opportunity.”
She insisted she no had concerns over the huge fee. “That is supply and demand in football. It is the reality.”
