Twenty years after its first presence in Brussels, the non-profit organization is responsible for managing a disabled sports box which brings together nearly 1,000 participants each year and which gives the largest Belgian running event an additional dimension. Better still, all the country's major events now welcome joëlettes and offer a start reserved for handibikes as a prelude to their event, proof that this initiative has changed habits.
“I never would have believed that we would still be here today and with so many projects. All on Board brings together people from all backgrounds and who go well beyond disability today, with different social missions”smiles Jean-François Lenvain, the tireless leader of this project. “In the end, we transformed this individual sport of running into a collective adventure.”
From Paris to Brussels to get over the hump
To celebrate its 20th anniversary, Tous à Bord has launched a new sporting challenge, as it has done many times in recent years. Supported by Remco Evenepoel who officially launched the festivities from the family store in Schepdael, it will be a question of reaching Paris from Brussels, with able-bodied and less able-bodied athletes. That’s 6 stages and 400 kilometers.
In this Olympic year, the project is part of the perspective of the Paris Games which will begin two months later, with stops in cities labeled “Terre de Jeux 2024”. Each arrival and each departure will be part of the pre-Olympic festivities planned by the stopover cities.
With the presence of Olympians
Many athletes will take part in one or more stages of the All on Board project. Among them, some (ex) Olympians, like Jean-Michel Saive, president of the COIB, who will be at the start of the first stage. And he will be far from being the only one. With the desire, also, to highlight certain former champions of the regions crossed. With the slogan “From shadow to light” as the common thread of this journey leading to the City of Lights.
A grand finale to the 20 Km of Brussels
Arriving in Paris, Tous à Bord will return quickly and naturally to its starting point to take part in the 2024 edition of the 20 Km of Brussels on Sunday May 26.
“We will be there for the 20th time”continues Jean-François Lenvain. “An event that is obviously close to our hearts since it’s where it all began for us. We are happy to see that we have managed to move the lines. It is now one of the great moments of the year for disabled sports in Belgium.”
The program of the “Brussels-Paris, from shadow to light” project
- Step 1 (05/20): the stage will connect the foot of the Brussels Atomium to the Tivoli stadium in La Louvière.
- Step 2 (05/21): departure from Binche, to reach the northern town of Solesmes.
- Step 3 (05/22): heading for Saint-Quentin, in Aisne.
- Step 4 (05/23): drop-off point in Compiègne, in the Oise, via the Rethondes wagon where the armistice of the First World War was signed.
- Step 5 (05/24): Tous à Bord will enter the large Parisian suburbs of Goussainville.
- Step 6 (05/25): Arrival in Paris, at the Belgian embassy, opposite the Arc de Triomphe.
- May 26: participation in the 20 Km of Brussels.
