© French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF)

Created in 1948, Olympic Day recently took on a whole new dimension in France with the award of the 2024 Paris Games. Also, after the 2017 and 2018 editions which marked the spirits by their spectacular nature, the 2019 vintage of the Day Olympic promises to be exceptional. Like the ambitions of Paris 2024 in terms of celebration and commitment of the French in the dynamics of the Games.

One and the same Sports Festival

For this 2019 edition, Paris 2024, the Ministry of Sports and the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF) have decided to unite their energies to organize a joint celebration with the Fête du sport, born in 2018, around the values ​​of the Olympism and sport. Olympic Day therefore merges with Sports Day to become a single major annual event, exceptionally organized over two days in 2019 - Saturday June 22 and Sunday June 23 - across the country.

All the players involved alongside Paris 2024 - the CNOSF, the State, the City of Paris and the Île-de-France Region - have thus worked hand in hand to offer an exceptional system. This work could not have been done without the support of local authorities and the sports movement. As every year, the regional, departmental and territorial Olympic and sports committees, the Olympic and Paralympic federations, the clubs, the athletes, all mobilize to animate these days, welcome the public, promote the values ​​of sport and the 'Olympism, and promote the discovery of Olympic and Paralympic sports.

In total, more than 700 projects will flourish across the country on June 22 and 23, covering all the French departments of Metropolitan France and overseas, symbol of the Games for all of France desired by Paris 2024. The largest metropolises in the he image of Marseille, Lyon or Bordeaux, like the smallest municipalities, will host events intended to help people discover and share sports (see page 10). Demonstrations, initiations, shared practices and meetings with athletes will be on the program.

© French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF)

An exceptional program

The kick-off of the 2019 Olympic Day & Sports Festival will be given on Saturday 22 June at the Olympic nautical stadium of Île-de-France, in Vaires-sur-Marne (see page 12), where the site of the canoe events kayaking and rowing of the Paris 2024 Games will be officially inaugurated.

Then, on June 23, the Concorde will transform for a day to become a magnificent urban sports park in the heart of Paris and invite young and old, with family and friends, to share unforgettable moments in contact with the greatest athletes. (see page 20). The possibility of practicing around thirty Olympic sports in this majestic setting, at the foot of the Obelisk of Concorde, will reinforce the spectacular dimension of this day. Like a taste of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Olympic Day 2019 will also be an exceptional opportunity to win the very first bibs for the general public event of the 2024 Paris Games marathon (see page 25). In total, twelve races in the regions and in Paris will make it possible to designate the first 46 lucky people elected for this legendary race of the Games.

So, see you on June 22 and 23, for Olympic Day & Sports Day 2019.

© French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF)

What is Olympic Day?

Celebrated each year on June 23 by the IOC and the National Olympic Committees - in reference to the birth of the modern Olympic movement, on June 23, 1894 in Paris in the large amphitheater of La Sorbonne - Olympic Day is devoted to sport and 'Olympism all over the world. Every year, June 23 is an opportunity to promote the discovery of Olympic and Paralympic sports on the basis of three pillars "Move, learn and discover", to facilitate the practice of physical and sports activities, from the most classic to the less. known.

Olympic Day is much more than a sporting event. It is a day of activities for all, which aims to promote the teaching of the Olympic values. It is also the occasion for unusual and prestigious encounters with athletes, initiations, demonstrations ...

As every year, the French National Olympic and Sports Committee celebrates the creation of the IOC as part of Olympic Day. But this 2019 edition has a very special dimension since the Sports Festival, organized by the Ministry of Sports joined with Olympic Day to become a single major annual event, exceptionally organized this year over two days, on Saturday 22 and Sunday 23 June, on the whole of the territory. All actors involved alongside Paris 2024 - the CNOSF, the State, the City of Paris and the Île-de-France Region - worked together to design an exceptional device. If Paris will be at the heart of this Olympic Day, with an unprecedented event and spectacularly organized on Place de la Concorde, it is the whole of France that is mobilizing to celebrate the values ​​of Olympism. I am very happy that Olympic Day thus become more and more extensive and that the mobilization of the sports movement and Deconcentrated CNOSF structures allow our nation to celebrate Olympism by gathering around the values ​​of Excellence, Friendship and Respect with the ambition to attract more and more French people in clubs, where it all starts.

Denis Masseglia - President of the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF)

© French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF)

Olympic Day & Sports Day 2019: a national celebration

Olympic Day, in partnership with the Fête du sport, will be the occasion of a major popular festival in the regions, around participatory projects involving all stakeholders, in order to promote the values ​​of sport and Olympism, to promote the practice of sport for the greatest number and be part of the heritage ambition of Paris 2024: sport to move more, educate and change outlook.

700 events across France

To support the organization of events in line with this dynamic on June 22 and 23, a call for projects was initiated last March by the Ministry of Sports, the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF), the Committee French Paralympic and Sportsman (CPSF) and Paris 2024.

Endowed with two million euros, this call for projects aimed to label and financially enhance the initiatives carried out within the framework of a partnership necessarily involving the sports movement (clubs, committees or leagues, CDOS / CROS / CTOS) and a territorial collectivity (or a grouping of collectivities) of the whole territory, metropolis as overseas.

More than 700 events were deposited on the dedicated platform between March 29 and May 3, 2019 and labeled by the regional commissions made up of the sports movement and the State. A digital communication kit associated with the operation with the event being put online on the dedicated national site (national mapping) will be made available to them. The most innovative initiatives will also benefit from a grant, each region being delegated a financial envelope in order to support the animation projects deemed to be the most relevant.

To know more : http://www.sports.gouv.fr/journeeolympique-lafetedusport/