The Most Famous

ATHLETES from France

This page contains a list of the greatest French Athletes. The pantheon dataset contains 6,025 Athletes, 178 of which were born in France. This makes France the birth place of the 5th most number of Athletes behind Russia, and United Kingdom.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary French Athletes of all time. This list of famous French Athletes is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of French Athletes.

1. Albin Lermusiaux (1874 - 1940)

With an HPI of 58.42, Albin Lermusiaux is the most famous French Athlete. His biography has been translated into 23 different languages on wikipedia.

Albin Georges Lermusiaux (9 August 1874 – 20 January 1940) was a French athlete and sport shooter who competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens.

2. Henri Eberhardt (1913 - 1976)

With an HPI of 55.53, Henri Eberhardt is the 2nd most famous French Athlete. His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Martin Henri Eberhardt (27 November 1913 – 4 July 1976) was a French sprint canoeist who competed from the late 1930s to the late 1940s. Competing in two Summer Olympics, he won two medals with a silver (1936: Folding K-1 10000 m) and a bronze (1948: K-1 1000 m). Eberhardt was born in Riedisheim on 27 November 1913. He died in Beaune on 4 July 1976, at the age of 62.

3. Michel Jazy (1936 - 2024)

With an HPI of 54.33, Michel Jazy is the 3rd most famous French Athlete. His biography has been translated into 22 different languages.

Michel Jazy (13 June 1936 – 1 February 2024) was a French middle-distance runner and long-distance runner. He won the 1500 metres silver medal at the 1960 Summer Olympics, as well as two golds (in 1962 and 1966) and one silver (in 1966) at the European Championships. He set nine world records in the mile (once), 2000 metres (twice) and 3000 metres (twice), the two miles (twice) and the 4×1500 metres relay (twice).

4. Bernard Morel (1925 - 2023)

With an HPI of 52.86, Bernard Morel is the 4th most famous French Athlete. His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Bernard Morel (30 March 1925 – 23 October 2023) was a French fencer. He won a bronze medal in the team sabre event at the 1952 Summer Olympics. He also competed at the 1951 Mediterranean Games where he won a bronze medal in the team sabre event. Morel died in Roanne on 23 October 2023, at the age of 98.

5. Joseph Guillemot (1899 - 1975)

With an HPI of 52.46, Joseph Guillemot is the 5th most famous French Athlete. His biography has been translated into 24 different languages.

Joseph Guillemot (1 October 1899 – 9 March 1975) was a French middle- and long-distance runner. He won the 5000 metres and was second in the 10,000 metres at the 1920 Summer Olympics.

6. Joanni Perronet (1877 - 1950)

With an HPI of 51.75, Joanni Perronet is the 6th most famous French Athlete. His biography has been translated into 24 different languages.

Joanni Maurice Perronnet (19 October 1877 – 1 April 1950) was a French painter and fencer. He was son of music composer Joanni Perronnet and Blanche Guérard, as well as grandson of the playwright and lyricist Amélie Perronnet. He was a fencing master, the only professional allowed to compete in the Olympic Games at the time. Two such masters, Perronet and Leonidas Pyrgos of Greece, competed in a special foil fencing event at the first modern Olympics. The two faced each other in an event that consisted of a single bout to three touches. Perronet lost the bout, 3-1. He competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens, winning a silver medal and 3 goats.He had close links to Sarah Bernhardt, she was his godmother. In 1908, he became secretary-general of the Sarah-Bernhardt Théâtre Sarah-Bernhardt. He is known as a painter, most of his paintings are seascapes. He also designed many posters for French railway companies and painted several portraits of Sarah Bernhardt.

7. Adolphe Grisel (1872 - 1942)

With an HPI of 51.11, Adolphe Grisel is the 7th most famous French Athlete. His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Adolphe Jules Grisel (9 December 1872 – 13 December 1942) was a French athlete and gymnast. He competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens.From 1895, Grisel was affiliated to the Racing Club de France. He was the French National long jump champion in 1896, with a jump of 6.23 metres, and the runner-up in 1893, 1895 and 1898; he placed third in the sport in 1894. He was also the runner-up in the 400 metre hurdles in the French national championship in 1895.At the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens, Grisel competed in five different events, four in athletics and one in gymnastics. On April 6, he came fourth out of five in his heat in the 100 metres and so failed to qualify for the finals. In the 400 metres, his failure to place in the top two in his heat again disqualified him from progressing further. He also competed in the discus: there is no no record of the distance that he threw, but he was not among the top four of the nine participants in the competition.On April 7, Grisel returned to the Panathenaic Stadium to compete in the long jump. Again there is no official record of his result, but unofficial reports say that he jumped 5.83 metres and finished in fifth place.After a two day break, Grisel competed in the parallel bars gymnastica event;, Alfred Flatow (gold) and Louis Zutter (silver) were the only athletes awarded medals, and there is no official record of the results achieved by the other sixteen gymnasts involved. Grisel concluded his participation in the Games by supporting his compatriot Albin Lermusiaux, accomanying Lermusiaux on a bicycle as he competed in the marathon.

8. Micheline Ostermeyer (1922 - 2001)

With an HPI of 50.75, Micheline Ostermeyer is the 8th most famous French Athlete. Her biography has been translated into 27 different languages.

Micheline Ostermeyer (23 December 1922 – 17 October 2001) was a French athlete and concert pianist. She won three medals at the 1948 Summer Olympics in shot put, discus throw, and high jump. After retiring from sports in 1950, she became a full-time pianist for fifteen years and then turned to teaching afterwards.

9. Henri Deloge (1874 - 1961)

With an HPI of 50.75, Henri Deloge is the 9th most famous French Athlete. His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Henri Léon Émile Deloge (21 November 1874 in Saint-Mandé – 27 December 1961 in Bourg-la-Reine) was a French middle-distance runner who won a silver medal over 1500m in Athletics at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris ahead of John Bray. The race was won by Charles Bennett who won the gold medal. He also won the silver medal in the 5000 metres team race for the French distance team.Deloge also placed fourth in the 800 metres, after winning his semifinal heat with a time of 2:00.6. A repeat of that time would have won the final, but Deloge placed fourth instead with an unknown time (but one greater than 2:03.0, the silver medalist's time).

10. Camille Mandrillon (1891 - 1969)

With an HPI of 50.74, Camille Mandrillon is the 10th most famous French Athlete. His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Paul Camille Albert Mandrillon (6 September 1891 – 22 March 1969) was a French biathlete who competed in the early 1920s. At the 1924 Winter Olympics he won the bronze medal in the military patrol event, together with his younger brother Maurice; he was also the flag bearer of the French delegation, and took the Olympic Oath, the first for the Winter Olympics.

People

Pantheon has 231 people classified as French athletes born between 1824 and 2001. Of these 231, 120 (51.95%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living French athletes include Guy Drut, Martin Fourcade, and Pierre Trentin. The most famous deceased French athletes include Albin Lermusiaux, Henri Eberhardt, and Michel Jazy. As of April 2024, 52 new French athletes have been added to Pantheon including Bernard Morel, Adolphe Grisel, and Camille Mandrillon.