“The French team does not count”: former athletes demand that their years at the high level be taken into account in the calculation of their pensions

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 in which they are in their careers, are not in the same capacity as other individuals to lead a professional career and acquire retirement rights. But we understand that 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:sportThierry Peponnet then referred the matter to 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 income adequacy Today, the former skipper has 152 quarters out of 167, and his basic pension is reduced by around twenty percent, according to his calculations. “In 1984, I took a year off to prepare for the Games, and I got 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 we want to perform well against 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.

Machine-translated from French