I grew up with the values of sport and I’ve always practised a sport as an amateur (running, horse riding, skiing, tennis) or as a competitor (water skiing). I love sport and I love watching sport as a spectator or on television. Sport has made a huge contribution to my development.

Thank you to all the sportsmen and women, medallists and non-medallists alike, who have shown us and shared with us the universal values of sport: diligence, determination, resilience, strength, generosity, freedom, courage, commitment, fraternity, humility, respect, perseverance, inclusion and openness. Sport teaches us to manage our successes and failures, our convictions and doubts, to analyse, to start again, to be, to do, to undo, to redo.

This summer, thanks to sport, I’ve experienced some unforgettable moments and emotions. Firstly as a groom at the French Equestrian Championships, where I accompanied my daughter, an eventer, and then at the Olympic Games. I loved these two events, which nourished me for almost a month and will leave me with memories for life. I loved the physical intensity, the intensity of the emotions and the intensity of the values I experienced. Sport generates an incredible and unique force.

What jubilation, what fervour, what communion with the supporters and athletes, what indescribable joy! The competitors and organisers gave us a wide range of emotions that only sport can offer: euphoria, sadness, satisfaction, fear, pride, recognition, disappointment, delight…

Sport teaches us life. Sport brings us to life.

Thank you to the designers, organisers, safety personnel, those who worked in the light and those who remained in the shadows. Thank you for giving us this rare and beautiful spectacle. We celebrated creation, freedom of thought and action. The flame hanging over Paris showed us that it was possible to see from another point of view, to light up, to feel light, to illuminate, to shine.

Let’s celebrate sport. It’s time for the Paralympics!

Be strong!