Alain Mimoun, born Ali Mimoun Ould Kacha (1 January 1921 – 27 June 2013), was a French long-distance runner who competed in track events, cross-country running and the marathon. He was the 1956 Olympic champion in the marathon. He is the most bemedalled French athletics sportsperson in history. In 1999, readers of the French athletics magazine Athlétisme Magazine voted him as the “French Athlete of the 20th Century”.
On the track Mimoun won three Olympic silver medals, finishing second behind Emil Zátopek in the 10,000 metres final in 1948 and again second behind him in both the 5,000 metres and 10,000 metres finals in 1952. He was also the silver medallist in both events behind Zátopek at the 1950 European Athletics Championships. From 1949 to 1958, he won four individual gold medals and two individual silver medals at the International Cross Country Championships. He was a four-time gold medallist at the Mediterranean Games, completing the 5,000 m/10,000 m double in both 1951 and 1955.
Born in Algeria, into a very poor, Arab-Berber family. Ali was the oldest of seven children in the family and his parents were peasants. His mother, Halima, also wove blankets for a living. He had always been a model pupil in primary school. When he was eleven, he finished his primary school education and obtained a certificate with mention bien. In view of his good academic results, his illiterate mother wanted him to become a primary school teacher. She applied for a scholarship for Ali after being told to do so by some colonists who had come to visit her. Ali was denied the scholarship—it was the only application rejected by the school—that could have enabled him to further his studies. He noted that sons of colonists with worse grades than he obtained their scholarships. When Ali learned of his scholarship rejection, he told his mother that Algeria was not his country and that his country was on the other side of the Mediterranean, even though he was against colonization. He said that as a teenager, he would dream that he was in front of maps and show France to his mother. Ali first worked as a mason, and then in a hardware shop when he was fourteen. He said that hardware shop owner was a Frenchman who came from France, was an admirable man who treated him like his son and with whom he would eat on the same table. Ali started to play association football when he was twelve and practice cycling when he was fifteen.
World War II and early running career
Mimoun enlisted in the French Army in 1939 when he was about 18 years old. In the same year, he was posted to the 19th infantry regiment. In September 1939, he was mobilised to the Franco-Belgian border. He spent nine months there in anticipation of the German offensive campaign – the Battle of Belgium. He engaged in combat at the Franco-Belgian border. After the fall of Belgium to the Germans in May 1940, his regiment retreated south into northern France, where he avoided being captured by the German army near Valenciennes. After France was defeated by the Germans in June 1940, Mimoun was posted to Bourg-en-Bresse in the Free Zone of Vichy France. When he was there, he discovered almost by accident a talent for long-distance running. He said that he joined in a race as he was passing a suburban track with some friends. While he was in Bourg-en-Bresse, he would train regularly in a stadium next to the military barracks. One day, he competed in some local racing events without any preparations. He won his first running event, the 1,500-metre Ain departmental championship, in front of 4,000 spectators. In that event, he beat the defending champion, thus ending his six-year reign as champion. He then finished a 5,000-meter race in under sixteen minutes. This prompted a local journalist to write, "A marathoner is born. He could become an Olympic champion." In 1942, Mimoun was posted to a regiment of combat engineers based in Besançon. Later that year, he was transferred to Algeria, where he won numerous races on track and in cross country, including the 1942 North African cross country running championship title. In the summer of 1944, Lance Corporal Mimoun participated in the Allied invasion of France from the Mediterranean Sea. After that campaign, he was involved in the liberation of the Jura Mountains from the German troops. He spent the winter of 1944–1945 in the Vosges Mountains before taking part in the Western Allied invasion of Germany. He spent about one year in Germany. The club arranged for him to work as a waiter in the café-bar of its facilities, which were then located in the Bois de Boulogne, and Mimoun would train in that park. In October 2002 and March 2012, Mimoun spoke of his difficult return to civilian life, "I was a café waiter. I did not have enough to eat. I won four Olympic medals while I was living in a small, two-room apartment (in the 19th arrondissement of Paris) without heating, shower and toilet."
Mimoun caused a major surprise by finishing second in the 1946 French national championships 10,000-meter race, despite having lost a shoe during the race. He made his international debut the following year when he represented France in an athletics meeting against Czechoslovakia in Prague. He established himself at national level in 1947 when he clinched his first French national championships titles, taking a track double in the 5,000 metres and 10,000 metres races. Mimoun also ran in the 5,000 m event of the 1948 Summer Olympics but did not progress to the final round. The following year he won the 5,000 m and 10,000 m French national championships titles and won his first major race at the International Cross Country Championships in Dublin, finishing ahead of compatriot Raphaël Pujazon in the individual event. He also led France to the team title.
He claimed cross country and 10,000 m French national championships titles in 1950, His second-place finishes behind the Czechoslovak champion gave Mimoun the nickname "Zátopek's Shadow".
Mimoun began 1956 in strong form, capturing the French national championships 5,000m, 10,000m and cross country titles, and winning what would be his fourth and final individual title at the International Cross Country Championships.
thumb|left|Alain Mimoun with his award
Mimoun entered the Olympic marathon race that took place in sweltering heat – the temperature went up to 38 °C (100.4 °F) in the shade during the race – on 1 December 1956, with the defending champion Emil Zátopek in the starting line-up. He was certain that day would be his lucky day. Frenchmen had won the Olympic marathon in 1900 (Michel Théato), and 28 years later in 1928 (Boughera El Ouafi). Now, 28 years had passed since the last French victory in 1928. One month ago, he had gone on a pilgrimage to the Basilica of St. Thérèse in Lisieux, France. The day before the marathon, Mimoun received a telegram from his wife, Germaine, back in France telling him of the birth of their first child, a daughter called Olympe.
"When I entered the stadium's tunnel and came out onto the track, cheered by 100,000 spectators, I experienced the finest minutes of my life," Mimoun said later.
“I was sure Emil was there at my heels,” Mimoun told Sports Illustrated in 1972. “I was hoping he would be second. I was waiting for him. Then I thought, well, he would be third. It would be nice to stand on the podium with him again. But Emil came in sixth, oh, very tired. He seemed to be in a trance, staring straight ahead. He said nothing."
"He would train three times a day, running a daily total distance of 35 km. It was certainly not for the 10,000-meter race, even though he had told me that he would not contest the marathon," said Mimoun's wife, Germaine, during an interview in 2006 with AFP. Mimoun revealed that before leaving for Melbourne for the 1956 Olympics, he had done his final training in the Corrèze village of Bugeat, which resembled his native village in Algeria. In an interview conducted in October 2002, Mimoun said,"When I announced that I was going to run the 1956 Melbourne Olympics marathon, everyone told me that I was too old. The French, the foreigners and everyone were laughing except Zátopek."
Upon hearing the news of the death of Emil Zátopek in November 2000, he stated, "I have not lost an opponent, I have lost a brother." He placed seventh in the 10,000-meter event at the 1958 European Athletics Championships. In 1959 he came sixth in the individual race at the International Cross Country Championships, He won a total of more than 80 French national running championships titles, including those for veteran athletes, the last one while in his seventies. In the last years of his life, he continued to jog or racewalk almost daily, up to 10–15 miles per day, on the roads and paths in the vicinity of his detached house in Champigny-sur-Marne in Val-de-Marne department, at the Bois de Vincennes and on the roads around Bugeat in Corrèze department.
Later life and legacy
After Mimoun arrived back home from the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, he mooted the idea of creating a world-class sports training center in France. In order to take advantage of better training facilities, he had to train overseas, especially in Sweden, for some of his running events. That was something that annoyed him and therefore he felt that it was necessary to build such a sports training center. Mimoun attempted to seek government funding to build it. After several failed attempts in previous years, he received a telephone call from Jacques Chirac to meet him in the Hôtel Matignon. During that meeting in 1967, Chirac, who was then a senior civil servant working as Prime Minister Georges Pompidou's technical adviser, told Mimoun, "I have followed your entire (running) career and I like your idea of creating a (sports) training center in Corrèze." The following day, Mimoun was received by the Sports Minister François Missoffe in his office and informed by him that government funding for the sports training center had been approved. Right after Mimoun's funeral in July 2013, the sports training center was rechristened Centre sportif Alain Mimoun
Mimoun worked as a waiter in a café-bar at the Racing Club de France and as a physical education instructor in France after the end of World War II.
In 1997, Mimoun protested in the strongest terms against the decision of the Comité national olympique et sportif français (CNOSF) to remove the Gallic rooster from the jerseys of French athletes.
Mimoun was chosen as the French L'Équipe Champion of Champions in 1949 and again in 1956.
In 1999, readers of the bimonthly, French athletics magazine Athlétisme voted him as the “French Athlete of the 20th Century”.
Mimoun converted from Islam to Roman Catholicism in 1955. Several months before the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, he had deep doubts about his ability to participate in those Olympics. In desperation, he let himself be driven by an atheist friend to the Basilica of St. Thérèse in Lisieux. One month after his pilgrimage there, he won the 1956 Olympics marathon. Mimoun asserted that he owed that marathon win to Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. After that victory, he became very attached to Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. He would go to the Basilica of St. Thérèse in Lisieux every year on a pilgrimage, usually on 1 October – the feast day of the saint. Prior to his death, he had a chapel constructed in the Bugeat cemetery to serve as his final resting place.
Honours
Legion of Honour
- Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur (1956) awarded by René Coty
- Officier de la Légion d'honneur (1972) awarded by Georges Pompidou
- Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur (1999) awarded by Jacques Chirac
- Grand officier de la Légion d'honneur (2008) awarded by Nicolas Sarkozy
Others
- Chevalier de l'Ordre national du Mérite.
- Commandeur de l’Ordre du Mérite sportif.
- Gloire du sport.
- Champion des champions de L'Équipe (L'Équipe Champion of Champions) (1949 and 1956)
- named French Athlete of the 20th Century in 1999
- Trophée de champion des champions de légende (2012)
Death, tributes and funeral
Alain Mimoun died at the age of 92 in the evening of 27 June 2013 at the Hôpital d'instruction des armées Bégin in Saint-Mandé, in the departement of Val-de-Marne in the Île-de-France region. The cause of death was not disclosed.
In a communiqué made public by the Élysée Palace French President François Hollande wrote that Alain Mimoun was "a magnificent Frenchman" and "left a deep mark on the history of French sport". "Throughout his life, Alain Mimoun, who was born in Algeria, loved and served France. And he was very attached to his department of Corrèze," emphasized Hollande, who also has ties to the area.
The French minister of sports, Valérie Fourneyron, hailed Mimoun as "one of the most endearing and loved figures of French sport". "All French people will remember him as the most medalled French athletics sportsperson of all time, above all as
a model of uprightness and kindness," added Fourneyron.
Michel Jazy, a French Olympic runner who shared a room with Mimoun for six weeks during the 1956 Olympics, remembered seeing him show the intensity and professionalism in order to succeed at the Olympics. "Alain was a role model for me. He would wake me up at 5:30 in the morning to go and run, and in the evening he would force me to go to bed at 8:30. Even though we were at the Olympics Games, I could not go to the parties in the Olympic village!" Jazy told RTL radio on the day after Mimoun's death.
On 6 July 2013, a minute's silence in honour of Mimoun's memory was held in front of 50,000 spectators during the 2013 edition of the Meeting Areva – an annual track and field event – that took place at the Stade de France.
Mimoun was accorded a state funeral will military honors. It was held on Monday, 8 July 2013 at 10am local time, in the main courtyard of the Hôtel national des Invalides in Paris. French President François Hollande presided over the ceremony, during which he paid homage to Mimoun. Retired French athletes like Stéphane Diagana, Michel Jazy and Marie-José Pérec attended the ceremony. In his eulogy, Hollande said,"Today, it is all of France which is paying homage to Alain Mimoun, to the one who ran throughout his life on the tracks of stadiums in order to make the La Marseillaise resound, seeking glory for his country everywhere." Hollande described Mimoun as "a courageous soldier, an exceptional sportsman and a fervent patriot" who was "loved by France" and stated, "To Alain Mimoun, France was a choice, a passion, a pride and an ideal."
In the afternoon of 9 July 2013, Mimoun was buried in the cemetery in Bugeat after a religious ceremony in the Bugeat church. The funeral was attended by about sixty persons.
Competition record
International (only the position in the final is indicated)
Mimoun competed internationally for France on 86 occasions.
;French Cross Country Championships :
- 6 titles (1950, 1951, 1952, 1954, 1956 and 1959)