Monique Berlioux

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Monique Edith Colette Berlioux (born December 22, 1923 in Metz , † August 27, 2015 in Niort ) was a French swimmer, journalist and sports official. As Secretary General of the International Olympic Committee, she was one of the personalities who helped shape world sport for 15 years.

Athletic career

Already as a child Monique trained with her mother Suzanne (who later was the trainer of Christine Caron among others ) in Paris and was able to become a French (youth) champion for the first time at the age of 15. From 1941 to 1952 she was the French backstroke champion without a break . With the Olympic Games canceled in 1940 and 1944 , she was essentially able to pursue a national career and became French champion 40 times. In 1948 she took part in the Olympic Games in London (semi-finals over 100 m back), but had already passed her performance peak. In 1950 she was in the finals of the European Championships. She won her last French championship in 1952. In 1990 she won the silver medal at the Senior World Championship of the Fédération Internationale de Natation Amateur in Rio de Janeiro with 49.72 seconds over 50 m back. In total, she has improved the French record over 100 and 200 m backs eleven times.

National career

During the war she wrote for underground newspapers of the Resistance and provided messenger services, including transporting news by swimming across the Seine in Paris.

After graduating from the Lycée Fénelon (Paris), she studied literature at the Sorbonne after the end of the war and graduated with the Maîtrise in 1948. She has worked as a sports journalist for Parisien Libéré , Front National , L'Aurore , Le Figaro , The Observer , La Libre Belgique , Revue Olympique , ORTF , BBC , ABC and CBS . 1956 married the journalist and writer Serge Groussard , but kept her name, which was a trademark in French sport. The marriage remained childless and her career was only briefly interrupted. From 1951 to 1955 she organized a section for synchronized swimming in the Racing Club de France . When the club focused back on athletics and lap swimming , she founded the Nautic Club de France , which specialized in synchronized swimming and she became chair of the synchronized swimming commission of the French Swimming Federation ( Fédération française de natation ). As she stood for top sporting performance and good journalism, Maurice Herzog , who had become State Secretary for Youth and Sport under de Gaulle , hired her as his press officer, which she remained from 1960 to 1966. 1966-1967 she stayed in the same position with Minister of Sport François Missoffe . For her book about the Olympic Games, she went to the IOC in Lausanne , worked in the archive, spoke with the Secretary General Johann Westerhof as well as with Avery Brundage and Lord Killanin , whom she - without having applied - based on the impression, her résumé and the Professional experience offered the position as head of the press department of the IOC, which she took up in 1967.

Since she had campaigned for the Olympic Games in Paris, she was hired by the Paris Mayor Jacques Chirac as a consultant (1985-1996); since Chirac then became President of France , he entrusted her with a number of important representative tasks: President of the Award Committee for the Medal of Honor Youth and Sport (1998–2012), member of the Committee for the Selection of National Orders and Decorations (1998–2010) she the Gloire du sport ), Vice-President of the Académie des sports , then President and finally Honorary President of the Association des écrivains sportifs , member (1963), then Vice-President (1986-2000) of the International Fair Play Committee , President (1992-2005) , then Honorary President (since 2005) of the Association of Sportsmen who have represented France internationally.

International career

Brundage dismissed its general secretary as early as 1969. Since Brundage mainly operated from Chicago , the Lausanne office was often left to its own devices and the Secretary General had made decisions without asking Brundage beforehand. Monique Berlioux acted as acting general secretary and from 1971 to 1985 she was officially awarded the title of general secretary. However, she also retained the duties of head of the press office. In 1974 and 1981 she headed the IOC congresses in Varna and Baden-Baden . Even when she moved from President Brundage to President Killanin, she was able to keep her duties. The move to President Juan Antonio Samaranch was also initially unproblematic, as, from her experience in France, she was positive about the professionalization of athletes, as long as no money was made at the Olympic Games and professionals were not particularly privileged. But as early as 1985, the conflicting interests became apparent: Samaranch definitely wanted the 1992 Summer Olympics in his hometown of Barcelona , and Berlioux in Paris. Samaranch separated from her, with IOC sports director Walther Tröger being particularly helpful. The details of the termination agreement were negotiated for Berlioux between the President of the International Boxing Federation ( AIBA ) Anwar Chowdhry for Samaranch and the Swiss lawyer François Carrard , who later became Secretary General of the IOC himself. The information about this has been discussed in the media. According to the Stasi documents , she received 7.3 million US dollars, namely 1 million as severance pay as well as continued salary for the entire cycle of the Olympic Games up to 1988, as well as a company car and its maintenance up to 1988. In return, she committed herself to life Secrecy towards everyone about her work and the IOC itself. In her books (the WorldCat has 54) she therefore doesn't write anything about her time at the IOC.

Honors

  • Commander of the Legion of Honor
  • Grand Officer of the Ordre national du Mérite
  • In 1983 the annual honorary award for the best woman of the Académie des Sports, which has been held since 1921, was named after Berlioux
  • Grand Cross of the Ordre national du Mérite

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ While many obituaries state Paris as the place of death, newspapers from western France point out that she retired to Azay-le-Brûlé and died in nearby Niort. http://galaxienatation.com/monique-berlioux-1923-2015-une-place/
  2. ↑ fina.org
  3. ↑ ecrivains-sportifs.fr
  4. ↑ Michael Burgess: A long shot to glory. How Lake Placid saved the Winter Olympics and restored the nation's pride. Dog Ear Publ., Indianapolis 2012, ISBN 978-1-4575-1287-2 , p. 46.
  5. ↑ http://www.si.com/vault/1981/04/13/825524/carrying-the-torch-olympic-committee-presidents-may-come-and-go-but-monique-berlioux-is-an -enduring-power-in-amateur-sport si.com; after two miscarriages they adopted Marie Chevallier-Berlioux, cf. Monique Berlioux: Des Jeux des Crimes. 1936. Le piège blanc olympique. Biarritz: Atlantica 2007, p. 843; ISBN 978-2-7588-0002-6
  6. ↑ racingclubdefrance-natation.fr
  7. ↑ whoswho.fr
  8. ↑ library.la84.org
  9. ^ Arnd Krüger : The Unfinished Symphony. A History of the Olympic Games from Coubertin to Samaranch. In: James Riordan , Arnd Krüger (Ed.): The International Politics of Sport in the 20th Century. Routledge, London 1999, pp. 3-27.
  10. ↑ Once again, the Stasi files of the IM "Möwe" discredit members of the leadership of world sport. on: berliner-zeitung.de , September 18, 1996.
personal data
SURNAME Berlioux, Monique
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Berlioux, Monique Edith Colette (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French swimmer, journalist and sports official
DATE OF BIRTH December 22, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Metz , France
DATE OF DEATH August 27, 2015
Place of death Niort , France