Paris 2024: 25 students-entrepreneurs qualified

All audiences

In the wake of France Universités, which announced a few days ago the participation of many university students in the Olympic Games, it’s the turn of the CDEFI, union of directors of French Schools of Engineering, to provide a Focus on engineer students competing in Paris 2024. This participation is also an opportunity to show the “historic and pioneer commitment” of engineering schools in the reception and support of top-level sport students.

According to the CDEFI, it is indeed the flexibility of schools of engineering that allow to offer top-level sportspersons attending an engineer training course “a customisation and adjustment of their training course in line with their sport/academic education double project”.

Participating in the Olympic and Paralympic Games

In total, 25 students-engineers qualified for the Olympic and Paralympic Games of Paris 2024.

Twenty will compete in the Olympic Games in various sport disciplines:

Swimming (artistic or relay), with five athletes from various schools: ESIEE Paris (school of engineering in the digital, energy and environmental transitions field) INSA Toulouse (National institute of Applied Sciences) and IPSA Paris (school of aeronautic and spatial engineering).
athletics (long jump, 1,500 m, 5,000 m, 800 m), with four sportspersons from INSA Toulouse, l’INSA Rennes, l’INSA Lyon, Polytech Sorbonne (polytechnic institution from Sorbonne Université);
sailing (INSA Lyon), archery (Polytech Sorbonne), climbing (Polytech Grenoble);
team sports: volleyball and beach-volley (INSA Toulouse), water-polo (Polytechnique Marseille) and field hockey (Polytechnique Lille).

To be noted that a number of sportspersons trained in France compete for other countries. This is the case for:

badminton, with two students (from INSA Lyon and INSA Strasbourg) competing for Algeria;
climbing, with an engineer student from INSA Lyon competing for South Africa.

Five additional sportspersons compete in the Paralympic Games in three disciplines:

para table tennis with two engineer students from Polytechnique Tours;
para swimming with two students from INSA Toulouse and ESILV (general engineering school);
para athletics with an athlete from INSA Rennes.

Let’s all act for sport and sciences

Reminding that in April 2023, the CDEFI concluded with the CGE (a union of major schools), France Universités and the French ministry of higher education and sports a “partnership roadmap” to develop sport practice for students, the CGE explains that the Olympic Games are also an opportunity for French higher education and research “to act all together for sport, including in relation with sciences”.

The CDEFI mentions two projects bridging the two fields:

the Science 2024 research programme, including the CNRS and several institutions, including a dozen schools of engineering for “the optimisation of the performance of French athletes through the improvement of materials, design or physiologic challenges”;
The implementation of the Génération 2024 certification, a label granted to institutions acting to encourage sport practice and physical activity for the young “by developing structuring projects with sport clubs in the country, by participating in Olympic and Paralympic promotional events, by supporting or welcoming top-level athletes, or by opening their sport equipment” 18 engineering schools received the Génération 2024 certification.