4 questions to André Giraud the newly elected president of the French Federation of Track and Field on the International Track and Field Meeting for All of Marseille

Q: André Giraud, you are the newly elected president of the French Federation of Track and Field ... and you became a member of MUST. Could you explain what motivated you to join our association? A: Historically, Giampiero, the current president of MUST, several years ago, before MUST existed, was a member of the athletics section of the SCO Sainte Marguerite, of which I was president. When he founded MUST, and created an athletics section, it was natural for me to invite them to become a local LGBT-friendly section of SCO Athletics, to help them with their logistics. On the other hand, MUST contributes to enrich the diversity of the SCO, whose capacity to welcome new members in a family way is quite superb. Becoming a member of MUST is just another chapter of this beautiful story based on mutual respect and admiration and a way to emphasize that MUST's efforts are well recognized at the French federal level.

A meeting where one expects very beautiful sport performances and which also emphasizes the fight against all discriminations can only be strongly supported! Photo: Benjamin Letuppe

Q: Can you define in a few words what the concept of "sport for all" means to you? A: Access to sport for the greatest possible majority of French is one of the goals of the Ministry of Sport and surely of the French Federation of Track and Field. We support all methods aiming to bring French people closer to sports, especially those who, for various reasons, such as homophobia, may have had problems in doing so during their youth or even now. If elite athletes are those who make the front page, and with great merit of course, they are only a small minority of track and field practitioners. They are the result of a sports movement which goes from the school system all the way to the development of sport for master athletes. Q: Why did you decide to support the International Meeting of Athletics for All? A: I find this new idea to bring together amateur and elite athletes, LGBT and non, young and

old, very interesting and innovative and of course I also helped building it, as the SCO Sainte Marguerite is a partner of this event. A meeting where one expects very beautiful sport performances and which also emphasizes the fight against all discriminations can only be strongly supported!

The International Meeting of Athletics for All will be a trampoline for Paris 2018 and I invite all French athletes and of course athletes from all other countries to come to Marseille for this event as well as to discover this beautiful Mediterranean city.

Q: How do you see the LGBT-friendly international sports movement today? A: The FFA (tn: French Federation of Track and Field) is a partner of the Gay Games X, which will take place in Paris in August 2018. We expect more than 10000 athletes from all continents, all sports combined. Despite their name, the Gay Games, founded by the American decathlete Tom Waddell, Olympian in Mexico City, in 1982 in San Francisco, are open to all, LGBT and heterosexuals, with no need for minima to participate. The International Meeting of Athletics for All will be a trampoline for Paris 2018 and I invite all French athletes and of course athletes from all other countries to come to Marseille for this event as well as to discover this beautiful Mediterranean city.