Michel Bernard

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Michel Bernard 1963

Michel Bernard (born December 31, 1931 in Sepmeries , France , † February 14, 2019 ) was a French medium and long-distance runner, he reached three Olympic finals in 1960 and 1964.

biography

Since his father had died in the war, he had to start working at the age of 15. The factory was eleven kilometers away, which he covered every day, first on foot and then by bicycle. During company comparisons he was discovered as a cross-country runner. In 1949 and 1950 he was French youth / junior champion. After his military service he continued his career and was able to become the French champion over 1500 meters for the first time in 1955. He was very disappointed that he - unlike his long-term competitor Michel Jazy - was not selected for the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne . In these amateur times he had to work hard, while Jazy was always released from training and competition as an employee of the sports newspaper L'Équipe . He came to terms with this and from then on turned to the longer routes. Bernard was French champion over 5000 meters in 1958, 1959, 1960 and 1962, over 10,000 meters in 1961, 1964 and 1965, cross champion in 1958 and 1961. At the Olympic Games in Rome in 1960 he was 7th over 1500 and over 5000 Meters, 1964 in Tokyo 6th over 1500 meters. He ran seven French records and was involved in the world record over 4 times 1500 meters.

Since 2008, his son Pierre-Michel Bernard has been mayor of Anzin in the Nord department .

training

While in most European countries training was practiced according to the latest findings in training science, Bernard's training was based on the findings of earlier successful athletes. So he trained in the woods in the north of France just like Gunder Hägg used to do with Gösta Olander, who kept a training camp in Vålådalen in the woods of northern Sweden . His training was characterized by pure endurance and long stretches as well as by driving games , ie, in addition to long stretches in the forest, he mainly did repetitive speed runs in the field. He rarely trained on cinder tracks. Due to the naturalness of the training, he was able to train independently , he refused a strict interval training, Freiburg style after Woldemar Gerschler and Herbert Reindell . In France, with his large training volume, he was in tough competition with Michel Jazy, who trained much shorter and faster.

Cultural and historical significance

The rivalry between Michel Jazy and Michel Bernard is symptomatic of the cultural discourse in France in the 1950s and 60s. Although both came from the north, Jazy moved to Paris at the age of ten , was considered a wine drinker, beau , bon vivant, to whom everything fell. Bernard was born in the north, stayed in the north, drank little, if at all, had to work hard all his life, was rather disadvantaged by the headquarters in Paris, and stood for a culturally different way of life. This conflict between the center and the periphery, different life plans represents life in France to this day.

Honors

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michel Bernard: La rage de courir . Paris: Calmann-Levy 1975
  2. ↑ Anne Roger: The training of the French middle distance athletes (1845-1970). In search of the French method, in: D. Buschmann & S. Wassong (eds.): A cross-country skiing through history. St. Augustin: Academia 2005, pp. 405-429.
  3. ↑ Arnd Krüger : Many roads lead to Olympia. The changes in the training systems for middle and long distance runners (1850-1997), in: N. Gissel (Hrsg.): Sportliche Leistungs im Wandel . Hamburg 1998: Czwalina, pp. 41-56.
  4. ↑ Manuel Schotté: Deux modèles d'encadrement d'élite sportive dans l'années 1950 - 1960, in: Christian Dorvillé (ed.): Grandes figures sportives du Nord-Pas-de-Calais. Presses Univ. Septentrion, 2010, pp. 165-170
personal data
SURNAME Bernard, Michel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French athlete
DATE OF BIRTH December 31, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Sepmeries , Nord department , France
DATE OF DEATH February 14, 2019