French Officials Calls for Inclusion of Athletes with Intellectual Impairment at the 2030 Winter Paralympics

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Marc Truffaut, President of the French Federation of Adapted Sports (FFSA) and Virtus, together with Sandrine Chaix, Vice President of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region and delegate for disability, have launched a powerful call for the reinclusion of athletes with an intellectual impairment at the 2030 Winter Paralympic Games.

This call is backed by Marie-Amélie Le Fur, President of the French Paralympic and Sports Committee (CPSF), and Fabrice Pannekoucke, President of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region, underlining the strength and unity behind this historic movement.

Virtus fully supports this initiative and urges the global sporting community, partners, and citizens to sign the statement in support of inclusion.

Why This Matters

Athletes with intellectual impairments have been absent from the Winter Paralympics since Nagano 1998. Yet they are here. They train, they compete, and they excel—particularly in alpine skiing and Nordic skiing.

Virtus represents more than 500,000 athletes from over 90 nations, while in France alone, FFSA supports more than 66,000 members. These athletes have already demonstrated their excellence on the global stage such as the Virtus Global Games (the world’s largest elite event for athletes with intellectual impairments), Virtus Regional Games and Virtus World Alpine and Nordic Skiing Championships, hosted in France in 2025 on FIS-approved slopes.

These achievements prove one clear point: Adapted sport is high-performance sport—not a sport apart.

The Moment is Now

On 24 July 2024, during the 142nd IOC Session in Paris, the French Alps were awarded the XXVI Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. With the Games coming to home soil, the opportunity to make history has never been greater.

France has the vision, the infrastructure, the expertise, and now the chance to close the last gap in Paralympic inclusion by welcoming back athletes with intellectual impairments.

A Call to Action

This is more than a sporting issue. It is a matter of human dignity, inclusion, and civic recognition.

We invite federations, athletes, educators, families, journalists, sponsors, influencers, and citizens to sign this statement of support. Together, we can ensure that France seizes this historic opportunity and becomes the nation that welcomes back athletes with intellectual disabilities to the Paralympic Winter Games.

By hosting the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, France proved it can lead. And now the host wants to complete the story of true inclusion and equal opportunity by including the only impairment that is still missing at the Winter Games editions: athletes with an intellectual impairment, who deserve their place on the world stage.

Statement to sign: