Born to a middle-class tanner family of the area of Rouen, Valérie Absire grew up in a family with conservative views, which she shared as a teenager. At 14, she supported Valéry Giscard d'Estaing during the 1974 presidential campaign. This support was later used against her on various occasions by local political opponents. In the 1980s, her political views shifted to the left. According to the French National Medical Council, she is a medical practitioner. From 1984 to 1989, she was a sport doctor in the teaching hospital of Rouen and then she became a medical inspector. In 1989, she joined the Ministry of Sports where she was in charge of both the organisation and monitoring of the national sports medicine program and of the co-ordination of the Team Physicians of national sports teams. As part of her duties, Valérie Fourneyron helped draft the 1989 Anti-Doping Act. From 1991 to 1995, she was head physician of the regional center of sport medicine in Sotteville-lès-Rouen and Team physician of the French volleyball team. She was also Team Physician of the Rouen Hockey Élite 76.
Political career
She became politically active in 1995 when Yvon Robert, the Socialist candidate for the Rouen City Council, asked her to join his team. From 1995 to 2001, Valérie Fourneyron was first deputy-mayor in charge of sports and then first deputy-mayor in charge of city policy, health and security. In 1998, she was a member of an interdepartmental group that prepared a report on sports medicine and doping and she collaborated with the working group in charge of writing the new legislation regarding doping. During the 1998 regional election, she became vice-president of sports when she was elected to the Upper NormandyRegional Council as part of the left-wing coalition led by Alain Le Vern. She was re-elected in 2004 and remained vice-president. When she was elected to the National Assembly, she resigned from her seat in the Regional Council on 1 July 2007. She represented the French Socialist Party in the 2002 legislative election. She faced the outgoing MP Patrick Herr, representing the right party UMP, in Seine-Maritime's first constituency. She narrowly lost in the second round by 520 votes. After the campaign, she said that she was hurt by the harsh attacks against her: “I was accused of being a bad mother because I didn't stop my political career when I lost one of my sons in a scooter accident. But my children are the reasons why I decided to keep going.” After the 2004 General Council election, she was general councillor for the canton of Rouen-5. She resigned from her position as a municipal representative. Valérie Fourneyron was chosen for a second time by the French Socialist Party for the 2007 legislative election. She beat the UMP candidate Bruno Devaux in the second round and she was elected with 55.16% of votes. The former MP Patrick Herr had decided not to campaign for this election. At the National Assembly, she became vice-president of the SRC in charge of sports. In 2008, she campaigned for the municipal election in Rouen. On 9 March, she led a left-wing coalition and won against outgoing mayorPierre Albertini in the first round, with 55.79% of the votes. On this occasion, she became one of the few women to lead a city of more than 100,000 inhabitants. Other women who are mayors of cities this large include Hélène Mandroux, Maryse Joissains, Martine Aubry, Adeline Hazan, Dominique Voynet, and Huguette Bello. She joined the association of mayors of major French cities where she was in charge of sports-related issues. In July 2011, she joined Martine Aubry's campaign team, representing the French Socialist Party in the 2012 presidential election. Along with athlete Yohann Diniz, Valérie Fourneyron was responsible for sports-related issues. After the primary election, François Hollande included her in his campaign team, putting her in charge of sports-related issues for the 2012 presidential election. On 16 May 2012, she was appointed Minister of Sports, Youth, Popular Education and Community Life. Pierre Léautey replaced her as alternate MP after her re-election on 17 June 2012. One of François Hollande's 60 campaign promises was to prohibit MPs from holding multiple elected positions simultaneously, so this forced Valérie Fourneyron to resign from the Rouen city council. Yvon Robert took over her position on 27 June 2012. After Jean-Marc Ayrault's resignation as a Prime Minister, Valérie Fourneyron is appointed as Junior Minister for Crafts, Trade, Tourism and Social Economy in Manuel Valls's Cabinet on 9 April 2014.
In December 2017 the International Olympic Committee put her in charge of screening Russians to judge if they can participate in the Pyeongchang Olympics. In 2016 she campaigned on a blanket ban of all Russians from international sports events.
