Among the many virtues of the Paris 2024 Olympics, let us note that of having given some good ideas to publishers. Yes, what a great idea to have asked a team of writers to tell us their memories of the Olympic Games! Solicited by the journalist, author and publisher Benoît Heimermann, 27 played the game, and it was a real treat (I remember… Pérec’s stride, Threshold). Throughout these beautiful escapes, most often whirlwinds, sometimes tinged with nostalgia, we wander, effortlessly, from one city, one discipline and one era to another.
Let’s start with Melbourne, 1956, with Evelyne Bloch-Dano, who applauds Alain Mimoun’s marathon. Four years later, in Rome, François-Henri Désérable takes us into the ring with Cassius Clay. Then it’s Mexico, 1968: Philippe Delerm greets the Oregon revolutionary Dick Fosbury, while Paul Fournel recalls the disqualification (for two beers ingested) of the Swedish pentathlete Hans-Gunnar Liljenwall.
In Munich, in 1972, soon bereaved by the massacre carried out by the Palestinian commando, Mark Spitz won his seven gold medals under the dazzled eyes of Colombe Schneck and the German Klaus Wolfermann threw his javelin 90.48 meters to great astonishment by Thierry Frémaux. In 1976, in Montreal, place for Maylis de Kerangal and Philippe Claudel, both fascinated by Nadia Comaneci. We will also mention Barcelona 1992, and its aficionados, Blandine Rinkel (the conductor Ryuchi Sakamoto and his martial anthem during the opening ceremony), Kaouther Adimi (the Algerian Hassiba Boulmerka and her gold medal in the 1500 meters ) and Maria Larrea (Carl Lewis’s long jump). And again Nathacha Appanah, Jérôme Garcin, Eric Fottorino, Pierre Assouline, Luc Lang, Erik Orsenna, François-Guillaume Lorain, etc. : all of them delight us, making us regret the French shortage of great “muscular” novels, despite a surge since the 2000s with Echenoz, Hatzfeld, Duluc, Guez, Assouline, Lola Lafon…
Literary festivals, too, have taken on Olympian colors. So the Taste of Others, (Le Havre, from January 18 to 21), which plans a sporting component, including the arrival of Aya Cissoko and Dominique Rocheteau, of the 8th Nuits de la lecture, from January 18 to 21, chaired this year by the philosopher Claire Marin and the choreographer Angelin Preljocaj, and articulated around the theme of the body, and, finally, the International Comics Festival (Angoulême, January 25 to 28), labeled “Cultural Olympiad”. Even L’Express is getting in on the action, launching its Olympics newsletter. On your marks !