Characters in togas, wearing laurel wreaths, dancing in the streets to the rhythm of the drum. Stilt walkers in sportswear, percussion players displaying the rings of the Olympics, schoolchildren disguised as torches, dressed in flame-red tutu… the 2024 Olympic Games (OG) were invited to the carnival parades of Martinique.
The municipality of Lamentin, the second city on the island, even made it the theme of the festivities. “We decided to take on this theme, explains Laurent Marie-Luce, the director of the culture office of this town of 40,000 inhabitants, located in the center of the island. This will allow us to highlight, during the passing of the Olympic flame in June, the decorative elements that were made at the carnival. »
From the beginning of January to mid-February, several major events combining the tradition of carnival with the news of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games attracted a large audience to the streets of Lamentin. Thursday, February 8, during the annual parade of the city’s schools, 2,000 children attending sixteen establishments paraded through the town center amidst a joyous uproar. “There was a beautiful colorimetry, a beautiful appropriation of the subject”welcomes Mr. Marie-Luce.
7,000 kilometers from Paris, the enthusiasm for the Olympic Games is starting to be felt in the West Indies. And not only during the carnival: since the award of the Terre de Jeux 2024 label to the Guadeloupe region, in December 2021, then to Martinique, in April 2022, sporting events have multiplied in the two departments.
“For one day, Martinique will be seen by the whole world”
In recent months, the pace has accelerated. At the end of November 2023, four delegations of athletes from Guadeloupe, Guyana and Reunion competed in six disciplines during the Overseas Games for the visually impaired, organized by the regional disabled sports committee of Martinique.
“It’s not really an event linked to the Olympics, but the year suited it and it was an opportunity to highlight people with disabilities”, specifies Thâo Wan-Ajouhu, the Martinique Terre de Jeux 2024 project manager for the local authority. Simulation sessions on the practice of blind football made it possible to raise public awareness of disabled sports. “The school community is very receptive”welcomes Mr. Wan-Ajouhu.
The Olympic torch relay passes on June 15 in Guadeloupe and two days later in Martinique are already generating palpable enthusiasm. “For one day, Martinique will be seen by the whole world”boasts René Meril, the president of the Territorial Olympic and Sports Committee of Martinique, the association which locally represents the French National Olympic and Sports Committee.
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