Marie-José Pérec
 Pérec at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | 9 May 1968[1] Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 5 ft 10+1⁄2 in (179 cm)[1][2] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 132 lb (60 kg)[2] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Athletics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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Marie-José Pérec (born 9 May 1968) is a retired French track and field sprinter who specialised in the 200 and 400 metres and is a three-time Olympic gold medalist.
Athletics career[]
Pérec won the 1991 World Championships 400 metres title in Tokyo and repeated the feat at the 1995 World Championships in Gothenburg. She was the 400 metres champion at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. Four years later, she entered the 200 metres and 400 metres events at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and won both, thus achieving the second-ever Olympic 200 metres/400 metres gold medal double (the first was achieved by Valerie Brisco-Hooks in Los Angeles in 1984). In 1996, Pérec won the 400 metres title in an Olympic record time of 48.25 seconds, which also ranked her as the third fastest woman of all time. It took 23 years until 2019 before Salwa Eid Naser, surpassed her mark to push Pérec to number 4 of all time.
In addition to her Olympic and World titles, Pérec also won the 400 metres title and was a part of the gold medal-winning 4 × 400 metres relay team at the 1994 European Championships in Helsinki.
The two 1996 Olympic titles were Pérec's last international titles. On 22 September 2000, she pulled out of the 200 metres and 400 metres events of the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, several days before they were due to begin. Pérec claimed that she had been threatened and insulted several times since arriving in Australia and that the Australian press, who were supporting Australian athlete Cathy Freeman, had been trying to sabotage her chances of winning the gold medal in the 400 metres.[3][4]
Pérec trained in Los Angeles, California, with the HSI track team and is listed as a legend on the team's page.[5]
Life after retirement from athletics[]
Pérec enrolled in the top French business school ESSEC and graduated in 2007 with a Master's in Sports Management.[6]
Pérec is a member of the ‘Champions for Peace’ club,[7] a group of more than 70 famous elite athletes committed to promoting peace in the world through sports, created by Peace and Sport, a Monaco-based international organization.[8]
On 21 October 2012, Pérec was elected president of the Ligue Régionale d'Athlétisme de la Guadeloupe, the governing body for athletics in Guadeloupe.[9]
Pérec participated in the French reality music competition Mask Singer as the Panthère, performing Stromae's "Papaoutai" and Angèle's "Balance ton quoi" before being eliminated in the first episode.
Family[]
Pérec gave birth to her first child, a son named Nolan, on 30 March 2010. Pérec's partner Sébastien Foucras is the father of the child.
Awards[]
Pérec was chosen as the French Champion of Champions in 1992 and 1996 by the French sports daily L'Équipe.
On 9 October 2013, Pérec was awarded the Officier de la Légion d'honneur by French President François Hollande in the Élysée Palace. Just before presenting the insignia to Pérec during the award ceremony, Hollande described her as "one of the most brilliant athletes in the history of French athletics". Pérec had received the Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur in 1996.[10]
On 16 November 2013, Pérec was inducted into the IAAF Hall of Fame.
Personal bests[]
| Event | Time (seconds) | Wind (m/s) | Date | Venue | All-time ranking |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100 m | 10.96 | +1.2 | 27 July 1991 | Dijon, France | 43rd (15th) |
| 200 m | 21.99 (FR) | +1.1 | 2 July 1993 | Villeneuve-d'Ascq, France | 21st (9th) |
| 400 m | 48.25 (FR), (OR) | 29 July 1996 | Atlanta, Georgia | 4th (3rd) | |
| 400 m hurdles | 53.21 (FR) | 16 August 1995 | Zurich, Switzerland | 20th (6th) |
- Rankings outside the brackets are world rankings
- Rankings inside the brackets are European
- FR = French record
- OR = Olympic record
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b c "Marie-José Pérec". britannica.com. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 23 May 2015.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Marie-José Pérec". sports-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 9 August 2011. Retrieved 23 May 2015.
- ^ Magnay, Jacquelin (2002), "Marie-Jose Perec on track", Sydney Morning Herald
- ^ "Perec out of Olympics". BBC Sport. 22 September 2000.
- ^ HSI Legends Archived 18 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine HS International
- ^ "Perec transmet le témoin". Le Parisien. 28 December 2009.
- ^ Jonah Lomu, Marie-José Pérec, Sebastien Loeb and Hicham El Guerrouj: sporting legends committed to peace Around the Rings, 12 February 2010
- ^ Marie-José Pérec[permanent dead link] Peace and Sport
- ^ Cairo, Elodie (23 October 2012), Le nouveau Comité Directeur de la LRAG (in French), Ligue Régionale d'Athlétisme de la Guadeloupe, retrieved 23 October 2012
- ^ "Pérec et Arron décorées de la Légion d'honneur". L'Équipe. 9 October 2013.
External links[]
- Marie-José Pérec at World Athletics
- Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Marie-José Pérec". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 9 August 2011. Retrieved 29 March 2018.
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- 1968 births
- Living people
- Black French sportspeople
- French female sprinters
- Olympic athletes of France
- Olympic gold medalists for France
- Athletes (track and field) at the 1988 Summer Olympics
- Athletes (track and field) at the 1992 Summer Olympics
- Athletes (track and field) at the 1996 Summer Olympics
- Guadeloupean female sprinters
- French people of Guadeloupean descent
- Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics
- Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics
- World Athletics Championships medalists
- European Athletics Championships medalists
- Officiers of the Légion d'honneur
- European champions for France
- Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field)
- World Athletics Championships winners
- Olympic female sprinters