Thomas Pesquet launched the Olympic and Paralympic week on Monday, which is to take place from January 24 to 29.
The next Olympic and Paralympic week will begin on January 24. But before that, Thomas Pesquet, French hero of children and adolescents, gave a press conference on Monday to promote this event which aims to highlight physical activity at school. The Space Agency astronaut challenged the students to move more.
Thomas Pesquet and Tony Estanguet on Monday surrounded by children for the launch of Olympic and Paralympic week. © DR
“In the International Space Station, you have to do at least two hours of daily sports activity to stay in shape despite weightlessness. On Earth too, moving is essential to stay healthy! Hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games in France is a great opportunity to transmit to all young people the taste and values of sport, and integrating a sports routine into their school day is a good way to start. Moving 30 minutes every day are small steps for children, but a big step for their health,” he explained in a press release.
Olympic week, launched several years ago now with a view to the 2024 Paris Olympics, was enhanced last year by the implementation of the “30 minutes of physical activity per day” system in primary schools. Until then at the experimental stage, it should gradually be generalized to more schools until the Olympic Games.
Roxana Maracineanu, with Tony Estanguet, Michel Cymes and Thomas Pesquet on Monday, for the launch of Olympic and Paralympic week. © DR
In addition to Thomas Pesquet on Monday, Tony Estanguet, president of Paris 2024, was also surrounded by Michel Cymes, with whom he has been collaborating for several months. “Paris 2024 is taking part in a major societal challenge. The confinement has only made an already alarming situation even worse: more than one in five adolescents is overweight and, in forty years, children have lost a quarter of their cardiovascular capacity. If we continue like this, we are heading towards a health disaster. But sport lowers the risk of cancer, heart disease, depression … ”, explained the doctor to Paris Match in January 2021. “With the will of National Education, we are trying to fight against a sedentary lifestyle, a time bomb. Thirty minutes is one of the solutions. It is simple, does not cost money, does not take much time. I hope it can be implemented everywhere,” added Tony Estanguet.
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