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Judoka Claris Agbegnenu asked the French Olympic Committee to have the opportunity to stay with her daughter during the Games. Who responded positively?
Balancing high-level sport and motherhood can sometimes be a challenge. Or the fighter, especially when you have small children and are breastfeeding. Judoka Clarice Agbegnenu, a qualifier for the Paris 2024 Olympics and mother of a baby girl born in June 2022, knows this all too well. The queen of the tatami mats, one of the most successful athletes of her kind with two Olympic titles and eight world championship medals, asked the French Olympic Committee for an exemption to take her daughter with her during the Games.
We remind you that the rule in the Olympic Village is that children cannot sleep there. They may be “invited” there during the day, but in general “guest tickets are very limited” and are often dedicated to medical or sports personnel, recalled Astrid Gayart, secretary general of the French Olympic Committee (CNOSF), quoted by AFP.
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Rooms at Hotel Pleyel
Clarisse Agbégnénou’s wish finally came true this Monday, February 26th. In fact, it was decided to offer rooms at the Hotel Pleyel, a few hundred meters from the Olympic village of Saint-Denis, for mothers who breastfeed their babies and thus offer “the best conditions for balance”. competitors and “take parenthood into account,” including fathers, Astrid Gayart explained at a press conference.
This upcoming hotel will also have a “100 square meter family area” where parents can spend time with their children, regardless of their age. This system will begin with the opening of the Olympic Village on July 18, 2024. “It’s unprecedented and it’s something we want to continue, that it’s not a bubble because it’s the Paris Olympics,” insisted Astrid Gayart, who is also the president of the athletes. “Commission.
At the moment, this represents a cost of “€40,000” for the French Olympic Committee, which organizes the entire system, but cannot say exactly how many athletes will ultimately be affected. “These are exceptional measures, because leaving the village also means leaving the heart of the Olympic Games,” said Marie-Amelie Le Four, president of the French Paralympic Committee.
The system will not be the same for the Paralympics. There will be an opportunity for the athletes, which have been planned for a long time, to be able to see their family at the France club. Parents of children up to one year of age will be able to see them during the day through a passage in the village, and the Paralympic Committee will consider requests for hotel accommodation, particularly in the case of a mother who wants to breastfeed her child.
Source: Le Figaro
