Since October 1, Thierry Peponnet, Olympic sailing champion in 1988, has “finally” enjoyed his retirement. “Finally”, because the former top athlete had to wait until he was 67 to be able to take it, but he is still missing trimesters. A situation experienced by around 35,000 former athletes, registered on the high-level lists of the Ministry of Sports between 1984 and 2012, but who did not always contribute during these years dedicated to their sporting practice. The Montpellier judicial court must rule on Wednesday October 28 to decide whether the priority question of constitutionality of Thierry Peponnet can be transmitted to the Court of Cassation.
When the former skipper asked the National Old Age Insurance Fund, at the end of 2025, to benefit from quarters for his periods of registration as a high-level athlete between 1984 and 1998, the CNAV replied that he did not have the right to do so. And for good reason, since 2012, a law has allowed athletes to benefit from 16, then 32 quarters, for these years at the high level, but only for those registered on the ministerial lists from 2012. "The State has recognized that high-level athletes, during the period during which they are in their career, are not in the same capacity as other individuals to lead a professional career and acquire retirement rights. But we understand that it there is something not very fair for those before 2012", explains Maître Alban Bennacer, lawyer for Thierry Peponnet.
We have athletes who represented France and who gave 4, 8, 12 sometimes 16 years of their lives to obtain results and medals, but who did not devote themselves to a professional career and did not validate any quarter of retirement.
Maître Alban Bennacer
at franceinfo:sport
Thierry Peponnet then contacted the internal amicable appeal commission, which did not respond, which amounts to rejection. He then decided to file this priority question of constitutionality before the Montpellier judicial court. “The goal is that this procedure reaches the Constitutional Council, and that it repeals this temporal limitation which does not give the same rights to athletes before and after 2012,” explains the lawyer.
An era of professionalization of athletes, but without adequate income
Today, the former skipper has completed 152 quarters out of 167, and his basic pension has been reduced by around twenty percent, according to his calculations. "In 1984, I took a year off to prepare for the Games, and I won bronze in Los Angeles. That made me want to go further, in 1988, and we won gold with my teammate in Seoul. But between 1984 and 1988, to obtain this gold medal, I devoted myself to my sport 250 days a year. There is no secret if you want to perform well facing Russian athletes who are seconded full-time, or ultra-sponsored American athletes, it's my pride to have been Olympic champion in front of them", underlines Thierry Peponnet.
Subsequently, the skipper participated in more professional and paid races, such as the America's Cup, then worked with wealthy owners who entered their boats in competitions. He was also a coach, then invested in a catamaran to organize outings in the Gulf of Saint-Tropez in the summer. “I'm doing well, I have a decent pension, but I embarked on this procedure to point out a problem: the athletes before 2012 are the forgotten ones of the nation,” he insists.
There is unequal treatment that is hard to live with for us, athletes who have shown the colors of France at the highest international level, who have honored France, and this because a law is not retroactive.
Thierry Peponnet
at franceinfo:sport
“When I talk about this situation, people don’t believe me: the French team doesn’t count!”, agrees Véronique Boutinaud. The former handball player played nine years in the French team, for around 90 caps, and reached the World A at the time, a first for the Blues. At club level, she also played in a European Cup final with Dijon.
But her sporting career left her physical scars, with hip, knee and hand problems, which forced her to retire due to disability at age 62, after a career in banking. "I'm missing 26 quarters, that's six and a half years, and I stayed nine years with the French team. If I had even six years recognized with the Bleues, I would be at full rate, whereas here I have a deficit of 500 to 600 euros per month, she calculates. At the time, we were amateurs. We are the generation which suffered the cast."
“When you win, everyone wants to be in the photo, but behind you we forget the athletes”
Of these 35,000 athletes concerned, "we are all obliged to go until almost 67 years old", breathes Pascal Eouzan, former gymnast specializing in tumbling, and president of the Collective of French Champions (CCCF), which carries their voices. “From the 1980s, with the arrival of the Chinese and Russians at the highest level, France wanted to copy. And I trained 35 hours a week. everyone wants to be in the photo, but behind it, we forget the athletes."
The CCCF tried to assert its rights with successive Ministers of Sports, but "since the departure of Amélie Oudéa-Castera, negotiations have been at a standstill, we keep changing ministers", so Pascal Eouzan "doesn't even bother to write anymore". The only concession accepted by the ministry: the possibility, for these athletes from before 2012, to buy back 12 quarters, with a part covered by the State. “We calculated with the CCCF that buying back 12 quarters would cost us on average 380 euros per month, to earn 340 on our retirement, so it is absolutely not profitable,” regrets the former gymnast.
“There was this concept of legacy of the Olympics. We hoped to be part of it, but everyone is failing. And besides that, a law was passed in 2026 to give one quarter per mandate to all elected officials, with retroactivity this time. You are never better served than by yourself,” observes Thierry Peponnet with bitterness.
