This week, the 2023 edition of the Sport Planète Eco-Games takes place in France with the support of French ICMIF member MAIF. This will be a week of sporting events, both in the capital Paris and across France. The aim is for MAIF’s support to give the games an added dimension by engaging a greater number of actors such as athletes, amateurs, federations, associations and the general public around three themes: water, eco-mobility and forests.

MAIF’s major focus of its commitment to sport through Sport Planète is as a way to focus on ecology and supporting the environment. With an invitation to the general public as well as known sports people to take part, in order to move together towards a more eco-responsible sports practice. For MAIF, in collaboration with Sport Planète, it’s always nature that should win in the end.

The official start of this year’s events was Monday 5 June, World Environment Day, but the first public event, a swimming relay will take place on Thursday 8 June. A swimming pool in Paris will host a challenge in which swimmers aim to swim a maximum of lengths in relay. Anyone who wishes to register to participate in this giant relay can do so. The objective of this event is for people to swim enough lengths of the pool to unlock the planting of 500 trees. Other events will take place up to and including 11 June 2023.

Created in 2007 by the SVPlanète association, the Eco-Games is an alternative concept for sporting events which serve environmental and societal causes. In other words, the goal is not so much sports performance, but rather social connection, health benefits and the positive impact that taking part in these games can generate on the environment.

International surfer Justine Dupont, a partner of MAIF since 2020 in the implementation of its environmental commitments, will be the main ambassador of the Eco-Games event. MAIF has been supporting Justine Dupont in her environmental commitments since 2020. Her aim is to reduce the carbon emissions generated by people taking part in her chosen sport during its main season (travel and jet skiing in particular). In 2022, she supported projects, with the help of MAIF, which aimed to raise awareness among younger generations about the marine environment and its preservation through learning to swim and being more familiar with the ocean.

A challenge for everyone across France

Thanks to the Active Giving mobile app, anyone in France will be able to participate in the Sport Planète Eco-Games, wherever they are, through the online challenge for the general public. Each length swum, each footstep taken and each basketball hoop scored can be registered by participants on the free-to-use app and this will then be transformed into trees to be planted in the Île-de-France region which surrounds Paris, in order to re-forest the capital and its surroundings. The goal is up to 3,000 trees planted!

For those who prefer to applaud sporting effort rather than take part, it will be possible to enjoy an Eco-Games event on 9 June, at the Charléty stadium, with the Paris Diamond League meeting. On the programme will be a 4×100 metres relay for the planet, run by athletes but also pro volleyball players and students of science and techniques of physical and sports activities (STAPS).

For people whose favourite sport is just to chill, they can visit the Good Planet Foundation on Saturday 10 June for the Chilowé festival which will celebrate micro-adventure and eco-responsible sport with discussion roundtables and various activities for families.

The last day of the Eco-Games week will put eco-mobility in the spotlight. Thirty different rallies of amateur cyclists will all converge on the centre of Paris while large numbers of roller skaters will leave the Place de la Bastille to skate a large loop of Paris, passing places with special significance for water.