102 higher education institutions obtain the “Génération 2024” label

In the wake of the designation of Paris as host city for the Olympic Games in 2024, the Olympic and Paralympic Week, organised every year is directed towards teachers, pupils and students “from nursery school to the university”. The Week commits regional authorities, sports associations and federations, and high-level athletes. For the 2022 edition, the Week held in late January sought to “add more sports and physical activity in the daily life of the Génération 2024”.

A label created as part of the Paris Olympic Games

In view of the Olympic Games organised in France in 2024, the Génération 24 label was developed by the French Ministries of Higher Education and Sports, in partnership with the “Mouvement Sportif” (sports movement) and the Paris 2024 Organising Committee, with the concrete aim of supporting the daily development of sports in higher education.

Being labelled Génération 24 means encouraging the daily practice of a sport, organising bridges between the university world and the sports movement, but also “allowing as many people as possible to experience the Olympic and Paralympic adventure now”.

 That being said, certified institutions agree to:

• develop projects in collaboration with sports clubs;
• participate in promotional events for the Olympic and Paralympic Games;
• accompany or host high-level athletes;
• opening up sports facilities in institutions.

A label to reward a new way of doing sport

According to the ministers in charge for higher education and sport, who wanted to congratulate the new winners, this award comes at a time when, throughout the health crisis, “the isolation of some students and the increase in sedentary lifestyles have had dramatic consequences for health”.

Three universities (in Paris, Toulouse and Polynesia), eleven “Grandes Ecoles” (including HEC and Sciences Politiques Paris) and four specialised institutions (CREPS, Centres de Ressources d’Expertise et de Performance Sportive) received the label to reward “the quality of their sports policy and their commitment to the physical and mental well-being of young people”. These institutions joined the long list of those that have already obtained the Génération 24 label, including most French universities and many management or engineering schools.

An expert committee to promote French language in sports

It is in this context of preparation for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games that the General Delegation for the French language of the Ministry of Culture, in collaboration with the Ministry of Sports, has just set up a college of experts to “identify and define new terms to enrich the French sports terminology”.

For the government, the organisation by France of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games could be a “great opportunity to boost the use of our language at international scale”. The Olympic Charter states that French is one of the official languages of the International Olympic Committee. This new college of experts is therefore tasked with inventing or forging new words. Indeed, says the press release, “new sports disciplines have been added to the 2024 Olympic Games and many of their technical terms are not yet available in French”.