Paris 2024: Men and women students in competition

About 1/3 of French athletes selected for the Games are students. According to the French ministry of higher education and research, “the French delegation has 875 athletes, of which 261 are women and men students with the status of top-level athlete”. This significant representation of students among athletes is fostered in France by bridges between sport and academic trainings specifically designed for top-level sport students.  

Top-level sport students are given a range of study adjustments, such as a reorganisation of their timetable, exemption from attending certain classes, exam arrangements and online courses. Within this framework, they may also benefit from educational support and monitoring by a “top-level sports referent”, support that can be combined with tutoring by another student. Additional specific assistance may also be provided: support for accommodation, medical check-ups and dietary monitoring, provision of sports facilities and loan of equipment, and more.

Top-level sport contributes to the influence of the nation and the promotion of sporting values. 

To be recognised as top-level sportsperson (SHN status in French), you must be included in the lists published each year by the corresponding ministry to identify sportsperson capable of achieving “results in major international competitions”. Inclusion in these lists takes into account “the correlation between performance and medal achievement”, and gives access to courses adjusted to optimally associate sports and studies. For each sport discipline, these courses are organised using two networks: Pôles France and Pôles Espoir.

Two universities close to the podium

And the Pôles France boast about 3,000 young athletes including sportspersons able to achieve international sports trials. Thirteen athletes, eight women and men students and five French alumni of Sorbonne University will be taking part in the Olympic adventure. Thirteen young sportsmen and women, writes the university website, who “have the immense merit of having pursued higher education while practising their passion at the highest level”. They include archers, judoka, table tennis players, fencers and swimmers, all of whom are supported by Sorbonne Université, which has been training top-level sportspersons since 1988. At this institution, the SHN mechanism involves an average of 35 athletes each year who study in partnership with INSEP (French national institute for sport, expertise and performance). The success of this approach, Sorbonne University points out, “is due to the day-to-day involvement of the community: training departments for timetable adjustments, teaching staff for teaching aids and fellow students for sharing courses and helping each other”.

The University of Grenoble-Alpes (UGA) is taking the same approach, with 12 top-level sportspersons who “will be on the tracks at the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games”. The UGA points out that in 2022, 33 UGA students and young graduates took part in the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Beijing. Two years later, “the adventure continues in Paris with a historic home Olympics”. Of the 600 high-level sports students in all the university’s courses of study, 12 have been selected in various disciplines: climbing, rowing, fencing, trampoline, swimming, pentathlon, etc. Two athletes are also competing in the Paralympic Games, in para-swimming and para-cycling. To be note that Faysal Sawadogo, a member of the Burkina Faso taekwondo team and a Masters 1 international student in Development Economics at the UGA, will also be taking part.

More institutions in the starting line

Even though they are not as numerous, many additional institutions encourage their athletes. Here is a non-exhaustive list by France Universités of Olympian initiatives by institutions. In the University of Paris 8, a university “giving a lot of important to sport and value to the commitment, dedication and determination of champions registered in its study courses”, four athletes are selected to represent France, three in water-polo and one in wrestling.

This is also the case at the Gustave Eiffel University, with three competing athletes (kayaking, slalom canoeing and para-canoeing) as well as “the youngest referee in modern pentathlon”. The University of Nantes has a European 400m hurdles champion who is preparing for the Olympics. At Toulouse Capitole University, there is a student and high-level sportswoman who is preparing to take part in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (rugby 7s) and no fewer than six alumni who will be competing in a variety of disciplines (athletics, canoeing, wheelchair rugby and para-shooting), as well as Antoine Dupont, an international rugby player who will be competing in rugby 7s and who has taken courses in sports management at the Toulouse School of Management, a component of Toulouse Capitole University. And the Paris Cité University will have a top-level sportswoman taking part in the archery events.

In short, as France Universités points out, “as the Games approach, there is growing interest in our top-level athletes”. And the union concludes: “We wish our athletes all the best: fun and performance”.