Michel Jazy

Michel Jazy, 1963

Michel Jazy (born June 13, 1936 in Oignies ) is a former French athlete of Polish descent who was successful as a medium and long-distance runner between 1953 and 1966. From 1956 to 1966 he was on the French national team 59 times. He ran 9 world records, 17 European records and 51 French national records and won two gold and one silver medal at European championships, but lost over 1500 meters to Herb Elliott at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome . He started for Club Atlétique in Montreuil and was trained by Roger Frassinelli and Jo Malléjac. He is 1.77 m tall and weighed 65 kg during his playing days.

career

He made his first sporting appearance in 1953 when he became the student champion over 1000 meters. Two years later he won the 1500 meter junior championship. As a 20-year-old he took part in the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, but did not make it to the finals. Things went better for him in 1958 at the European Championships in Stockholm, where he was able to place tenth over 1500 meters. From now on, Michel Jazy made a name for himself on all routes between 1500 and 5000 meters. After experiencing the only low point of his career in Tokyo in 1964 - he was 50 meters from the finish at the top over 5000 meters and was then beaten by centimeters in fourth place - he managed to beat Ron Clarke the following year over 2 miles in a world record time and finally, the crowning glory of winning the European Championship over 5000 meters.

The son of a miner who emigrated from Poland to France trained as a typesetter at the sports newspaper l'Equipe .

In 1960, 1962 and 1965 he was voted France's Sportsman of the Year (“ Champion des champions ”) by the sports newspaper L'Équipe . In 1965 he was also Europe's Sportsman of the Year .

Michel Jazy is still closely associated with sport today. In 1979 he launched the autumn classic “20 km de Paris”.

training

During a training new knowledge in most European countries exercise science practiced was the training Jazys based on the findings of previous successful athletes. So he trained in the footsteps of Gunder Hägg with Gösta Olander, who had a retired training camp in Vålådalen in the forests of northern Sweden . His training was characterized by driving play ; That is, he did a large number of repetitive speed runs in the field, he rarely ran on cinder tracks. Due to the naturalness of the training, he was able to train independently, and he considered strict interval training with the Freiburg style, based on Woldemar Gerschler and Herbert Reindell , to be fascist and completely un-French. In France, with the apparent ease of training, he was in tough competition with Michel Bernard , who trained much more extensively (and thus more slowly).

Services

• Olympic games
  • 1960 Rome:

  SILVER over 1500 m in 3: 38.4 minutes behind the Australian Herb Elliott in 3: 35.6 minutes and in front of the Hungarian István Rózsavölgyi in 3: 39.2 minutes

  • 1964 Tokyo: fourth over 5000 m in 13: 49.8 min at the same time as third-placed Bill Dellinger (USA)
• European championships
  • 1962 Belgrade:

  GOLD over 1500 m in 3: 40.9 minutes ahead of the Polish Witold Baran in 3: 42.1 minutes and the Czech Tomáš Salinger in 3: 42.2 minutes

  • 1966 Budapest:

  GOLD over 5000 m in 13: 42.8 minutes ahead of Harald Norpoth ( Federal Republic of Germany ) in 13: 44.0 minutes and Bernd Dießner ( GDR ) in 13: 47.8 minutes

  SILVER over 1500 m in 3: 42.2 min between two Germans: Bodo Tümmler (gold) in 3: 41.9 min and Harald Norpoth (bronze) in 3: 42.2 min

• State championships
  • 1960: 1500 m in 3: 42.2 min
  • 1961: 800 m in 1: 49.9 min
  • 1962: 800 m in 1: 48.2 min
  • 1963: 1500 m in 3: 37.8 min
  • 1964: 1500 m in 3: 41.5 min
  • 1966: 5000 m in 13: 49.8 min
  • 1962, 1965 and 1966 Cross
• World records
  • 1000 m hall: 2: 21.6 min on February 24, 1962 in Stuttgart
  • 1500 m hall: 3: 40.7 min on February 27, 1966 in Lyon (both records lasted five years each)
  • 1 mile: 3: 53.6 min on June 9, 1965 in Rennes
  • 2000 m:

  5: 01.5 min on June 14, 1962 in Paris

  4: 56.2 min on October 12, 1966 in Saint-Maur (this record lasted for ten years)

  • 3000 m:

  7: 49.2 min on June 27, 1962 in Saint-Maur

  7: 49.0 min on June 23, 1965 in Melun

  • 2 miles:

  8: 29.6 min on June 6, 1963 in Paris

  8: 22.6 min on June 23, 1965 in Melun

  • Relay: 4 × 1500 m in 14: 49.0 min on June 25, 1965 in Saint-Maur , Jazy as third runner (this record lasted eight years)

Individual evidence

1. ^ 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.
2. ↑ 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.

Web links

• Entry on sporting heroes
• Michel Jazy in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )