The history of sports in the armed forces
In the early 19th century, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte enforced the idea of "physically educating" soldiers, following an intensive sporting experience during a trip to England. The notion of physical exercise became synonymous with a healthy, robust and resilient army. Athletes, like soldiers have to be psychologically and physically ready for the ordeal ahead. While the risks involved are not the same, their demanding lifestyle choice combines rigour and sacrifice.
Thanks to this special relationship with sports, the armed forces will become pioneers in this field, a major player in the development of competitive and recreational sport for all.
Under Louis Napoléon Bonaparte, the army understood the importance of gymnastics for the physical preparation of soldiers, though he noted a lack of structures and trainers. In 1852, the Joinville Military Gymnastics School was created, the first sports training school in France. This school became a training and development center for champions and marked the beginning of a long military tradition of support to top-level sport. For many years, the school also trained instructors of military and civilian schools, the forerunners of physical education and sports teachers.
At the end of the Second World War, physical, military and sports training became a priority in the training of military personnel. Sport became an essential tool in the operational training of servicemen and women to maintain their physical and psychological condition and to be fully effective in carrying out their missions, and to maintain the esprit de corps and the desire to excel.
In 1948, military competition in the form of military championships and games emerged under the impetus of France, which, along with a number of European countries, founded the International Military Sports Council. Today, the CISM is one of the world's largest multi-disciplinary organisations, bringing together nearly 140 countries from all over the world, and is the equivalent of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for all the world's armed forces.
The armed forces imported disciplines into top-level international sports. Riding, and more specifically eventing (an equestrian triathlon combining dressage, cross-country and show jumping), is a discipline that originated in the military and was designed to test the abilities of horses destined for the armed forces.
After several closing and restructurings, the Joinville School was re-created in 1956 as the Joinville Battalion. It took in France's elite male athletes of military service age, which was compulsory at the time, to prevent them having to take too long a break from their sporting careers. Every year, 450 top French athletes did their national service there. The knowledge and practice of sport were disseminated among young people who, on returning from their military service, spread it among the population, each in their region of origin.
The Armed Forces Ministry fosters the exchange of values between the armed forces and all the categories of citizens, especially the youth. As of 1959, the Federal Defence Club Union (FCD), welcomes in its clubs the entire Defence community (military, civil servants from the Ministry and their families) and people outside the Defence world, in order to give them a taste for sports and cultural activities, from leisure to competitions, and to preserve their physical and moral condition. Since 1993, it has been validated by the Ministry for Sports, with which it participates in the implementation of the various public policies (feminisation, integration, handicap, health through sports, diversity, coeducation) and is a member of the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF).
In 1960, the French athletes returned from the Olympic Games in Rome without having won any gold medals. General De Gaulle decided to launch a large-scale sports policy. "If France shines abroad through its thinkers, scientists and artists, it must also shine through its athletes. A country must be great because thanks to the quality of its youth, and we cannot conceive this youth without a sporting ideal". Maurice Herzog, then High Commissioner for Sports and then Secretary of State for Youth and Sports until 1965 drew up an ambitious sports policy with a military component.
In the years, 1967-1998, the merger of the Joinville battalion, which trained high-level conscripts, and the Antibes battalion, which trained military sports specialists merged to form the Joint Sports School in Fontainebleau. These facilities also housed the Antibes Military Physical Training School for the Army, the Toulon Physical Education and Sports Centre for the Navy and the Joinville Joint Sports Group.
Roger Lemerre was in charge of the Joinville battalion and coached the French military team before winning the 1998 Football World Cup alongside head coach Aimé Jacquet.
From 1996 onwards, the suspension of military service, the professionalization of the armed forces and the new interdepartmental sports policy led to the renewal of the forces' support model for elite sports and the development of new relationships with the sporting movement and the Ministry of Sports, especially in the fields of innovation, research, development and disability.
In 2002, the legendary Joinville Battalion, which had welcomed more than 21,000 athletes in 45 years and won more than 45 Olympic medals, 312 world or military titles and 952 national or international titles, was disbanded. The Antibes Battalion's main mission remained the training of sports personnel required for physical education within the three services and the Gendarmerie.
In 2003 and 2014, interdepartmental framework agreements were signed between the Armed Forces Ministry and the Ministry of Sports aimed at developing mass sport and elite sport within the armed forces. As a result, the National Defence Sports Centre (CNSD) was created in 2006, following in the footsteps of sports training and performance organisations. It is responsible for implementing the sports policy of the the Armed Forces Ministry: optimising the physical and mental capacities of military personnel for operational engagements, supporting elite sports and helping injured soldiers to recover through sports.
For many years, the Armed Forces Ministry has pursued an active policy of supporting high-level athletes with disabilities. Since 1966, the Sports Club of the National Invalide Institution accredited by the Armed Forces Ministry has been helping disabled people to rebuild their lives and reintegrate society by enabling them to take part in a range of recreational and competitive sports.
In 2014, the Joinville Battalion was reactivated. The athletes are grouped together under the name "Army of Champions". Their management is based on interdepartmental governance under the responsibility of the the National Defence Sports Centre, with the aim of supporting these athletes in their quest for high sporting performance, while providing socio-professional support and introducing them to the values of the armed forces.
Today, the National Defence Sports Centre is a member of the French National Olympic and Sports Committee, the French Paralympic Sports Committee and French National Sports Agency. It is also a member of the large INSEP network (National Institute of Sport, Expertise and Performance) and as such helps prepare all French athletes for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, by offering them optimum training conditions: welcoming and provision of infrastructure and know-how, optimisation of the armed forces resources , hardening, cohesion, support and medical research, etc.
Today, twenty-three Olympic and Paralympic federations benefit from this support.