To create a “collective momentum »while doing “ hand sewn “. For three days, from November 22 to 24, the National Sports Agency (ANS) advanced its “plan coaches”, during a seminar held near Aix-en-Provence (Bouches-du-Rhône). This unprecedented program was born a few months ago from the desire of the head of high performance at the ANS, Claude Onesta, to give the coaches of the Bleues et Bleus a key role and responsibilities in the race for medals at the Olympic Games. and Paralympics (JOP) 2024.
“In Paris, our athletes will be much the same as in 2021 in Tokyo. Until then, we will not change our training methods, which are quite efficient. So, you have to work on the ability to win. This plan acts on a point never really taken into account: the coaches. We want to support them, value them and accompany them to restore them to a more ambitious position.”poses the former coach of the national handball team, gray mane and rocky voice, now custodian of the success of the French in “their” Games.
At the end of November in Aix, for this second seminar of the “coaches plan” devoted to the Summer Games, a hundred of them are present. Corinne Deacon, coach of the French women’s football team, chats with Olivier Krumbholz, her handball counterpart. Fencer Eric Srecki jokes with handball player Guillaume Gilles.
Other faces are less well known: those of representatives of sports with little media coverage, such as rowing, shooting or BMX, or Paralympic coaches. All were invited because they take care of athletes judged to be in a position to bring home a medal. “ This is the first time that we have been taken into account as able-bodied coaches.”notes Sylvie Talmant, Paralympic athletics coach.
Ninety medals “at hand”
The “coaches plan” aims to control everything that could weaken coaches with very heterogeneous financial and statutory situations. Additional salary, specific medal bonus of up to 35,000 euros… The ANS also deploys solutions for those who are too far from national training centres. Seventeen regional performance houses have been created and a network is being deployed with professional clubs, invited to make their facilities and medical staff available to Olympic coaches.
The plan is part of the “Blue Ambition” strategy which aims to make Paris 2024 a summit of medals gleaned, after the disappointment of Tokyo and its thirty-three podiums (including ten gold). The objective is a priority up to the highest level of the State. Thursday, November 24, the Minister of Sports and JOP, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, was in Aix for the last morning of the seminar.
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