As part of Olympic Day, celebrated on June 23, the athletes co-signed a platform with Paris 2024 encouraging French citizens to be part of sports clubs again.

Of those who signed, some of the nation's top footballers approved the message including Barcelona forward Antoine Griezmann, Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper Hugo Lloris and former Bayern Munich and Bordeaux left back Bixente Lizarazu.

All three players are World Cup winners with Griezmann and Lloris victorious in 2018 and Lizarazu part of the first French team to lift the trophy in 1998.

Paralympic champions in visually impaired sprinter Nantenin Keïta and alpine skier Marie Bochet also signed the agreement and were joined by Olympic champions such as former biathlete Martin Fourcade, judoka Teddy Riner and triple Olympic sprint champion Marie-José Pérec.

Others to sign it were 2017 world decathlon champion Kevin Mayer, former National Basketball Association player Tony Parker and 2014 world judo champion Clarisse Agbegnenou.

In a statement, Paris 2024 organisers said: "This is where sport changes lives.

"It is with this title that the Games Organising Committee of the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics and more than 100 French champions wish to honour the 180,000 sports clubs that allow millions of people to practise a sport."

It also suggested plans that would have taken place if not for the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Olympic Day will have highlighted the players in sport who are involved on a daily basis in all territories: volunteers, federations and sports clubs which are at the heart of the Paris 2024 project.

"The massive mobilisation of French athletes illustrates the immense federating force of the Paris 2024 Games, and of a shared vision of sport - a financially accessible sport, a sport that brings people together."

The Paris 2024 Olympics are scheduled to take place from July 26 to August 11 2024.