THE SPORT SCAN – Fifty French athletes called to block Marine Le Pen by publicly taking a stand for the current President of the Republic.
Olympic champions in shambles, world champions, many internationals: 50 figures of French sport, retired or still active, spoke on the site of the Parisian and France Info to support candidate Emmanuel Macron. Less than two weeks before the second round of the presidential election, these athletes have co-signed a platform to express their wish to oppose Marine Le Pen as France prepares to host the Rugby World Cup, in 2023, then the Olympic Games in Paris the following year.
“If we are fully aware of the difficulties that many French people are going through, we are convinced that voting for a party that would endanger republican values would be the worst remedy. The sport in which we believe, that of the values of Olympism, is made of friendship and respect; it is the place of diversity. He rejects all discrimination. Everywhere on the territory, in our cities, our suburbs and our countryside, sport is a powerful remedy for exclusion“, can we read in this joint statement.
“It is because we believe in this sport, fraternal and inclusive, that we are committed to preventing our nation from placing at its head a president who embodies the very opposite, the stigmatization of the other, the withdrawal into oneself, nationalism. And that we therefore call to vote for Emmanuel Macron on April 24“, conclude the signatories.
The 50 signatories: Clarisse Agbégnénou (judo), Samir Aït Saïd (gymnastics), Valériane Ayayi Vukosavljević (basketball), Brahim Asloum (boxing), Romain Bardet (cycling), Cécilia Berder (fencing), Alain Bernard (swimming), Marie Bochet (alpine paraskiing) , Laure Boulleau (football), Justine Braisaz-Bouchet (biathlon), Romain Cannone (fencing), Souleymane Cissokho (boxing), Élodie Clouvel (pentathlon), Cléopâtre Darleux (handball), Isabelle Demongeot (tennis), Stéphane Diagana (athletics) , Boris Diaw (basketball), Céline Dumerc (basketball), Antoine Dupont (rugby), Gévrise Émane (judo), Maud Fontenoy (sailing), Pierre Gasly (F 1), Edgar Grospiron (mogul skiing), Amandine Henry (football ), Stéphane Houdet (paratennis), Muriel Hurtis (athletics), Mickaël Jeremiasz (paratennis), Nikola Karabatic (handball), Raphaël Ibañez (rugby), Jean Le Cam (sailing), Eugénie Le Sommer (football), Christophe Lemaitre (athletics ), Laure Manaudou (swimming), Blaise Matuidi (football), Frédéric Michalak (rugby), Estelle Mossely (boxing), Earvin Ng apeth (volleyball), Valérie Nicolas (handball), Yannick Noah (tennis), Sarah Ourahmoune (boxing), Jean-Pierre Papin (football), Tony Parker (basketball), Dimitri Payet (football), Marie-José Pérec ( athletics), Allison Pineau (handball), Thibaut Pinot (cycling), Jackson Richardson (handball), Charles Rozoy (para-swimming), Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (tennis), Jessy Trémoulière (rugby), Cameron Woki (rugby), Tony Yoka ( boxing).
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