To paraphrase ex-trainer Guy Roux, it is still not the men who give birth. Even in Norway. This did not prevent Johannes Boe, great rival of Martin Fourcade in the race for the big Crystal Globe in the Biathlon World Cup, from being absent in the middle of the biathlon season. Returning Thursday, January 23 for the individual from Pokljuka, Slovenia, the biathlete has not competed in a single race since the start of the year and at the same time lost his place as leader in the general classification. But he had better things to do: on January 13, he attended the birth of his little Gustav.
View this post on Instagram
Gustav 💙🧸 13.01.20
A post shared by Johannes Thingnes Bø⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️ (@johannesbo) on Jan 19, 2020 at 10:34 am PST
Let's go back to the former technician from Auxerre. A big month earlier, the man with the most famous hat in French football had distinguished himself on the set of the chain L'Equipe. Target of his irony: the absence of the defender of PSG Marquinhos of the Parisian group for a trip to Montpellier to follow the first minutes of his little Enrico.
"There is no doctor in Paris to give birth to this lady?" “, Says Guy Roux. The lady did not appreciate. And she was not the only one. The outcry - from the player, internet users and PSG - that followed led the channel to apologize.
How does 5 men on a plateau comment on the choice of @ marquinhos_m5 to be with his wife at delivery, after the horror he experienced to see his first daughter born under respiratory assistance and not to return to the House ? It.
🤢🤮 #TeamPSG #marquinhos pic.twitter.com/JDFn7JY3Dc
Like the society as a whole, the world of sport has evolved on its relationship to fatherhood. In 2014, basketball player Alexis Ajinça ​​decided not to participate in the World Cup with the Basketball Blues so as not to abandon his wife during childbirth. In 2016, British tennis player Andy Murray spent his Australian Open explaining that he would leave Melbourne in the minute to join his partner, about to give birth, in the United Kingdom.
"Are we debating for an electrician?" "
And in football? Contacted, the union of professional players of France, the National Union of professional footballers (UNFP), ensures not to have had echoes of a club which would prevent its elements from spinning to maternity. "We do not even understand that we can judge the fact that a footballer wants to enjoy the first days of his child," says one. Are we debating when an electrician decides to stop working to attend the delivery of his wife? "
“Paternity leave has existed in France since 2001 and has been adopted by society as a whole. It is not a thing of Parisian sores, all social strata take it, underlines the CNRS sociologist Christine Castelain-Meunier, author of L'instinct paternel. Advocacy in favor of new fathers (Larousse). Men are now trying to combine family and professional life as little as possible. "
So, no one criticized another PSG defender, Presnel Kimpembe, for explaining in Le Parisien - Today in France that his 2018 misform was due in part to his visits to the hospital to see his son , born premature.
"Our society is not ready"
Obviously, not all countries are at the same point. That of Johannes Boe invented paternity leave in the mid-1970s and Norwegian couples have a total of three weeks in common, plus 15 weeks for the father, 15 for the mother and 16 for distribution.
Newsletter - The essentials of the news
Every morning, the news seen by Le ParisienI'm registering
Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to allow you to receive our news and commercial offers. Find out more
"Johannes announced to us that he would be absent during this period and no one in the staff or in the media questioned the legitimacy of this decision," says Siegfried Mazet, French trainer in charge of shooting the Olympic triple medalist. There, he returns focused on his objectives. He did not do anything for a month, he trained, but staying close to his partner. "
From Thursday, Johannes Boe, now seventh overall, will try to catch up to hope to keep his big Globe. But one question tickles us: would France accept without the slightest controversy that one of its best representatives weighs down its title chances to go baby?
"Our society is not ready for an athlete on the verge of winning, for example, the Tour de France, to plate everything to join his wife," explains Christine Castelain-Meunier. It will come when the state will extend the duration of paternity leave (note: 11 days currently) , and when companies completely consider their employee as a father. More men will also need to work in occupations related to early childhood. "