The small navy blue panels are discreet but present at the entrances to the city: “Verdun, universal city, Land of Games 2024”. In the Meuse, Verdun and four other municipalities and communities of municipalities (Codecom) have decided to embark on the Olympic adventure: Bar-le-Duc and its agglomeration, Commercy and the Codecom Portes de Meuse have also been certified.
Five is not much compared to other departments, but the departmental Olympic and sports committee (CDOS 55) and the departmental council are convinced of this: sport is a vector of attractiveness and social ties in rural areas, a fortiori in the approach of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (JOP) in Paris. This Terre de Jeux 2024 label is intended “to highlight the best practices of local authorities (…) and to encourage them to put even more sport into their daily lives, everywhere in France”let it be known official website.
“The concept is very vague. It is up to each community to make it live as it sees fit., explains Philippe Colson, adviser to the president of the Meuse departmental council, in charge of the Olympics and sports events. In the Meuse, we try to do with constant means. “The budget being what it is”labeling was first of all an opportunity to identify what existed, and to better coordinate local authorities, the sports movement and associations.
Feeding the associative network
In accordance with the Terres de Jeux specifications, the department and the labeled municipalities participate in national events: olympic and paralympic week (which took place from April 3 to 8 this year), Olympic Day on June 23 or Paralympic Day on October 8. Schoolchildren are particularly solicited, especially at college level – competence of the department. So the “Meuse-Terre Games Collegiates” are organized with the National Union of School Sports (UNSS) throughout the year and will end on June 21 with a rally at Lake Madine. The idea is that those registered with the UNSS get involved in clubs to feed the associative network. “We must not romanticize, tempers Mr. Colson, not all college students will find a club within 10 kilometers, but it allows them to discover Olympic sports which are practiced in the Meuse. »
The oldest are not left out: “Olympiads at the Ehpad” took place in June 2022 and the operation could be repeated in 2024. The department would also like to engage in “ the cultural olympiad “, through the large collection of sports archives launched by the National Archives. This is an opportunity for the Meuse, which has no professional clubs, to highlight the history of its century-old clubs or sites, such as Sport athlétique verdunois, created in 1909, or the uncovered velodrome in Commercy.
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