This Monday, October 14, L’Express awarded the 2024 Personality Awards, intended to reward those who have marked the year through their positions, their influence or their actions in different areas. At the invitation of Alain Weill, Chairman and CEO of L’Express, and Eric Chol, editorial director, figures from the world of sports, literature, science and technology presented five prizes including the Grand prize for personalities from L’Express during a prestigious evening. Among the presenters: Marie-José Pérec, athletics champion and triple gold medalist; Sébastien Missoffe, Managing Director of Google France; François-Henri Désérable, writer and author of The Wear and Tear of a World…
To relive the Grand Symposium of L’Express 2024, it’s here:
Express Grand Prix
Winner: Tony Estanguet, President of the Organizing Committee for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games
He is man of the year. At the head of the Organizing Committee for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, he has just devoted ten years to making this event a success, “the challenge of his life”, as he says himself. The bet was met, for this triple Olympic champion. Born on May 6, 1978 in Pau, Tony Estanguet took up canoeing very early, in the company of his father and his two brothers. He excelled very quickly, becoming French champion at 18, winning his first gold medal in Sydney in 2000, then a second four years later in Athens. Flag bearer of the French delegation at the Beijing Games in 2008, he won gold again at the London Games in 2012. A year later, a young retired athlete, he became a member of the International Olympic Committee. Bernard Lapasset, project manager of the French bid to organize the Games, chose him to lead the project alongside him. Praised for his composure, his attentiveness, his perseverance, the athlete established himself as the undisputed leader of this great celebration, which over the course of a magical summer, will have made the image of the country shine throughout the world. .
Europe Price
Winner: Gitanas NausedaPresident of Lithuania
Gitanas Nauséda is the president of Lithuania, the largest of the three Baltic republics with 3 million inhabitants. Elected five years ago and triumphantly re-elected this year with 75% of the vote, this economist is also a sportsman, a chess player and a collector of old books passionate about the history of his country… which was once the greatest Europe: in the 14th century, Lithuania extended from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea!
Aged 60, Gitanas Nauséda is an active defender of the Ukrainian cause. On February 23, 2022, just before the Russian invasion, he was in kyiv alongside President Zelensky. Today, Lithuania is one of the largest contributors of aid to Ukraine thanks to its defense budget which has skyrocketed in recent years. It is also this year that we celebrate the 20th anniversary of this country’s entry into the European Union, at the same time as the other Baltic countries. President Nauséda also cultivates close ties with France which is currently hosting the “Lithuania Cultural Season”, an event in more than 80 French cities.
Freedom Prize
Winner: Mitra Hejazipourchess champion, international women’s grandmaster
Mitra Hejazipour was born in 1993 in Iran. She was SIX years old when she discovered chess, which she first played with her father. The hobby turned into a passion, and the young woman excelled: Iranian champion at nineteen, she became Asian champion.
His life changed on December 29, 2019, at the world championships in Moscow. Mitra Hejazipour decides to show up in her hair, leaving her veil at the hotel. She hasn’t told anyone about it, but the gesture has been brewing within her for months. Her revealed hair provokes the outcry anticipated by the player, who wants to talk about the fate of women in the Islamic Republic. Following the events in Moscow, she did not return to her country, which had become too dangerous. and chose to return directly to France where she won the championship in 2023 – the year she obtained her French nationality. Finally, it is from her adopted country that she has been receiving the images that have been coming to us from Iran for two years. That is to say, since a young woman, Mahsa Hamini, died for a misplaced veil, triggering the incredible Woman Life Freedom movement, of which Mitra Hejazipour was one of the precursors.
Transformation Prize
Winner: Yuval Noah HarariIsraeli historian, author of Nexus
He is undoubtedly the most influential thinker of our time, the first “global intellectual of the 21st century” according to the magazine The Economist. Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Yuval Noah Harari has become an editorial phenomenon with Sapiens, a brief history of our species published in 2014 and which has sold more than 25 million copies. After the past, the Israeli historian looked at the present and the future with Homo deus and 21 Lessons for the 21st century, new bestsellers all translated into French by Albin Michel. His last attempt, Nexusa history of information networks from the Stone Age to Silicon Valley, from old religious myths to artificial intelligence, has just become a sensation in English-speaking countries. Showing that more information does not necessarily lead to more truth and more wisdom, Yuval Noah Harari warns of the unprecedented challenges posed by the AI revolution. As well summarized by New York Times“you will be both entertained and frightened.”
Science Prize
Winner: Fabiola GianottiDirector General of CERN
In 2016, she became the first woman to head the European nuclear research organization. Fabiola Gianotti has given style and ambition to this unique center in the world, specializing in fundamental physics, giving it a leading role in the areas of scientific excellence and international collaboration.
Long passionate about philosophy, this graduate of the University of Milan chose physics because it “provides more answers”. She joined CERN in 1994, with one objective: to pursue the Higgs boson, this elementary particle, the “keystone” of fundamental physics. In 2012, at the head of a team of 6,000 scientists, Fabiola Gianotti announced her discovery. An event which earned him one of the 6 personalities of the year by the prestigious Time magazine. Renewed for a second term, the Director General is celebrating Cern’s seventieth anniversary this year and preparing for its future. With the opening of the Science Portal, it encourages access to science for young people. And draws the outlines of the future particle accelerator, scheduled for the 2040s.