Ten thousand steps and more. Sport remains absent from debates linked to the presidential election, despite the prospect of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Even before the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, sport occupied only a marginal place in political discourse. A “great oral” on physical activity organized on March 17 by eight institutional and economic actors confirmed this because only three candidates went there: Anne Hidalgo (Socialist Party), Yannick Jadot (Europe Ecologie-Les Verts) and Fabien Roussel (Communist Party).
While some programs evoke the practice of sport, there are however great disparities and sport-health is only rarely mentioned. Yannick Jadot is one of the few to make concrete proposals in this area with the reimbursement of an initial consultation.
However, the observation is without appeal. Regular physical activity, even of moderate intensity, is as effective as medication in preventing or treating certain diseases. The scientific literature shows its effects on the prevention of chronic diseases.
But the French are not moving enough. The sports cardiologist François Carré also deplores the low place given to prevention and in particular to sport-health in the debate. Even though a sedentary lifestyle, especially among young people, is, according to him, a “sanitary time bomb, whose wick is getting shorter and shorter”. A term also used by the two deputies Régis Juanico (Génération.s, Loire) and Marie Tamarelle-Verhaeghe (LRM, Eure), in a report, presented at the end of July, on the lack of physical activity.
“According to the figures given by the Ministry of Health, it can reasonably be projected that the annual increase in patients with long-term illness [ALD] will be between 300,000 and 400,000 – 12.5 million in total. In question, a very risky lifestyle choice for health combining junk food (more than 50% of French people are overweight or obese) and the lack of physical activity. Given the current medical desertification, one can wonder how to take care of these patients, not to mention the associated cost”emphasizes Professor Carré.
Another example : “in sixth grade, only three or four out of five children, according to physical education teachers, are able to hop four times on the same foot, and very few children know how to jump rope well”, laments François Carré. For many actors, youth is one of the main issues. “Physical activity must become a routine. It is learned from an early age.”noted Christèle Gautier, sport-health strategy project manager at the Ministry of Sports, during a conference organized on Tuesday March 20 by the Union sport et cycle (USC), which brings together companies in the sector.
You have 29.06% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.