Team ENGIE

In December 2014, ENGIE was one of the first companies to join France’s Performance Pact, an initiative by the Ministry of Sports to boost the performance of French teams at the 2016 Olympics. Back then, the Group sponsored a Team of five athletes including Hélène Defrance and Pierre Le Coq, who each won a bronze medal in sailing. ENGIE employees showed strong support for the athletes both during their training and at the Games in Brazil.
 
At the beginning of 2018, ENGIE continued its support for eight French athletes as they began to prepare for the next Olympics in Tokyo. This long-term support for French sport, which ENGIE has now been sponsoring for 30 years, is a grassroots commitment which focuses on regional cooperation as well as the development of sport throughout France. The Group’s sporting partnerships aim to address the issues facing our key regions and local authorities. 

The choice of athletes was made in association with the Ministry and our regional delegates, with the aim of strengthening the Group’s regional influence and addressing the issues facing our key regions by operating on a local level and getting involved in our communities. The athletes we recruit, chosen with ENGIE Regional Delegates, are ambassadors of our work to boost the regional fabric.
 

To qualify for the Performance Pact, athletes must meet the following two criteria:

• be an elite Olympic or Paralympic athlete in their discipline, with the potential to win a medal according to their sports federation,
• be unable to afford to train accordingly.

Since 2018, the Group has supported promising young athletes who have shown great potential, like Cassandre Beaugrand (triathlon), Madeleine Malonga (judo), Luka Mkheidze (judo) and Wilfried Happio (athletics – 400m hurdles), as well as more experienced athletes like Elodie Clouvel (modern pentathlon), silver medallist at the Rio Olympics (2016), Pauline Ado (surfing), 2017 World Champion, Pierre Le Coq (sailing), bronze medallist in windsurfing at the Rio Olympics (2016), and Alex Caizergues (kiteboarding), four times World Champion and world record holder. 

They are joined by:
-    Fabien Lamirault, ENGIE ambassador for Marseille and Var, a tetraplegic para table tennis player, a double gold medallist (singles and doubles) at the Rio Olympics (2016) and double world champion,
-    Raphael Beaugillet, ENGIE ambassador for Blois, a Paralympic partially-sighted cyclist, para-duathlon world champion in 2012 and fourth in the Para Track Cycling World Championships; aiming for gold in the 1,000m in Tokyo this summer,
-    Cycling in tandem with François Pervis, ENGIE ambassador for Mayenne, seven times world track cycling champion and 1,000m world record holder.
-    Axel Mazella (kiteboarding) ENGIE ambassador for Toulon – Hyères, young French kiteboarding hopeful, currently double European champion and Kitefoil World Gold Cup champion, who started out on the ENGIE Kite Tour in a discipline that could become an Olympic sport in 2024. 
-    Poema Newland (Kiteboarding), ENGIE ambassador in Narbonne – Leucate, member of the French Women’s Kitefoil team, Poema is one of French kiteboarding’s most promising athletes. In 2018, she won a silver medal at the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in Buenos Aires, Argentina and recently finished third in the 2020 French Kitefoil Championships.
 
As a key partner in French sport for more than 30 years, ENGIE is reaffirming its unwavering support for French athletes at the heart of our regions.