Are you a teacher, a student or a parent? If it is the case, the Olympic and Paralympic week (SOP) is intended for you! It generally takes place at the end of January and gathers the educational community around powerful citizenship values: courage, determination and equality. PlayMoovin’ has been committing to that objective each year since its creation. As the year 2022 begins, we have naturally put all of our energy towards promoting sport and raising awareness of disabilities among young people. Zoom in on some of the actions in which sport wheelchairs have played a role all throughout France.
Small reminder on the Olympic and Paralympic week
What is the Olympic and Paralympic week?
It is a week centred on sport practice. It was created after the nomination of Paris as the organising city of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic games.
The 6th edition took place this year. The theme for this edition was sport practice in relation with the climate and the environment.
Who is involved?
The SOP is intended for all age groups, ranging from preschoolers to college students. This key moment allows each participant:
- To practice a new sport activity;
- To go up against others;
- To discover the powerful values of Olympic and Paralympic sport.
Naturally, primary, secondary and high school came forward from all around France to contribute to this project. The latter thus raised awareness of the importance of sport in daily life among 750 000 young people – from preschoolers to college students.
What are the SOP’s missions?
The SOP is centred around two main educational approaches:
- Raising awareness of disabilities among young people in a playful way;
- Encouraging the children and teenagers to regularly practice a sport.
With this in mind, participants from the educational team:
- Put sport practice at the heart of their project;
- Offer meet-ups with disabled athletes;
- Awaken solidarity within young people;
- Centre their work around inclusion in school;
- Put the spotlight on the values of Olympic and Paralympic sports.
Acoording to Génération Paris 2024, 85% of the SOP projects were about disabilities and Paralympic sport. It is on this occasion that PlayMoovin’ took part in several educational places.
Indeed, our company has one important mission: change the way people view disabilities. For that purpose, we made a plastic sport wheelchair: the KidsMoovin’. It is an awareness wheelchair which draws young people’s attention to:
- The daily challenges people with reduced mobility face;
- The discovery of parasports, such as wheelchair rugby or wheelchair tennis for instance.
Within the scope of a partnership with the UNSS (national union for sport in schools) and Génération 2024, the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic week also gave us the opportunity to introduce the Kids’Moovin to:
- Primary school children;
- Middle schoolers.
And as you will see, it has had a lot of success.
Raising awareness of disabilities among middle schoolers
Wheelchair handball in the spotlight
During the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic week, the Lou Blazer middle school in Montbéliard opened its doors for us with on the programme, an initiation to wheelchair handball. This sport is adapted to everyone, including to young people. The ball is indeed light.
All the young people could sit on their KidsMoovin’ with its angled wheels and try out this sport which develops:
- Cooperation;
- Strategy;
- Motor capabilities;
- Intellectual and social abilities.
A guaranteed moment of pleasure for everyone!
Parasport practice
This action took place with the help of:
- The Carpentras Sport Town Office;
- The departmental parasport committee;
- The departmental athletics committee;
- The departmental badminton committee;
- Mazan’s handball club.
Young students of the Raspail secondary school of Carpentras also had the chance to benefit from a wheelchair handball training session which included:
- Varied team game activities (target practice, etc.);
- Sport courses made for wheelchairs;
- A parasport initiation.
Primary school students at the Olympic and Paralympic week
Discovery of wheelchair rugby
5th and 6th graders from the Jaune et Bleu school, which was created in 2017 by the ASM (the professional rugby union club from Clermont-Ferrand), could discover wheelchair rugby within the scope of the Olympic and Paralympic week. This team sport is played with a manual wheelchair. It allows everyone, disabled or able-bodied, to be on the same page. The ball is round and not oval-shaped like in traditional rugby and forward passes are allowed.
Initiation sessions in activity centres and in schools
In Toulon, 3000 children had the occasion to discover parasport. This event was organised at the François Nardi school and at the Beaucaire activity centre in partnership with the city of Toulon, as well as the sport and Olympic departmental committee. It allowed young people to put themselves in the place of a person suffering from a disability for the span of a game.
Each of the actions carried out all throughout France during the Olympic and Paralympic week naturally contribute to a global and important mission: raising awareness of disabilities among young people and, little by little, changing the way people view disabilities. It can be done at any time because our wheelchairs are available for rent all year. So if you also want to organise a parasport initiation activity, you can contact us!
