After the controversy over EPS, basketball player Evan Fournier calls on Blanquer to reform sport at school – teller report

After the tackle, the complaints. In a column published on the Huffington Post site, basketball player Evan Fournier on Monday called Jean-Michel Blanquer for an in-depth reform of sport at school, in particular by creating time slots fully dedicated to sports practice. A (logical) follow-up to the criticisms launched by the New York Knicks player to the Minister of National Education, Youth and Sports after the Tokyo Olympics.

A memory gap? We rewind. To explain the various successes of French collective sports teams at the Games, the Minister was pleased to “the quality of the teaching of these sports at school”. A statement that had provoked the mockery of several French athletes, including handball player Vincent Gérard or basketball players Vincent Poirier and, therefore, Evan Fournier, who replied on Twitter by describing sports culture as “disastrous” in France.

Denouncing the impact “minimal” of the EPS on French performances at the Olympic Games, Evan Fournier, himself the son of an EPS teacher, suggests taking advantage of the Paris 2024 Games to “reform the French system by offering greater access to culture and sport”. And to continue: “Like many of our neighbors, why not offer young people real time slots dedicated to sport in their schedule?”

The one who has been in the NBA for 9 years now offers to be inspired by the American school system, which “allows ambitious young athletes to continue their studies, with the granting of scholarships in the most prestigious universities in the country”. In France, he laments, team sports are practiced by “simple convenience”.

The 28-year-old also denounces “an inequality in access to sport between establishments with means, and those in more complicated situations”. “It wasn’t the tiny two hours of PSE per week in my college schedule that made me want to play basketball”, he wrote, saying he was ready to receive Jean-Michel Blanquer in New York for “continue to discuss the subject”.

Contacted by AFP, the Ministry of National Education recalls that “The purpose of the EPS is not to train high level athletes, but to train as many people as possible in sport”, highlighting “the importance of high-level sports courses at school”.