Alain Mimoun
Alain Mimoun, born Ali Mimoun Ould Kacha, was a French long-distance runner who competed in track events, cross-country running and the marathon. He was the 1956 Olympic champion in the marathon. He is the most bemedalled French athletics sportsperson in history. In 1999, readers of the French athletics magazine Athlétisme Magazine voted him as the “French Athlete of the 20th Century”.
On the track Mimoun won three Olympic silver medals, finishing second behind Emil Zátopek in the 10,000 metres final in 1948 and again second behind him in both the 5,000 metres and 10,000 metres finals in 1952. He was also the silver medallist in both events behind Zátopek at the 1950 European Athletics Championships. From 1949 to 1958, he won four individual gold medals and two individual silver medals at the International Cross Country Championships. He was a four-time gold medallist at the Mediterranean Games, completing the 5,000 m/10,000 m double in both 1951 and 1955.
Born in Algeria, Mimoun fought military battles for France and the Western Allies during World War II. He settled in metropolitan France shortly after leaving the French army. Overall, he represented France in four consecutive
Olympic Games from 1948 to 1960. He competed internationally for France on 86 occasions. From 1947 to 1966, he won a total of 29 senior titles in the 5,000 m, 10,000 m, marathon and cross-country events of the French national championships. Mimoun continued to run in his later life and set a number of veteran age-category records.
Early life
Alain Mimoun was born Ali Mimoun Ould Kacha in the arrondissement of Maïder in the town of Telagh, Algeria, into a very poor, Arab-Berber family. Ali was the oldest of seven children in the family and his parents were peasants. His mother, Halima, also wove blankets for a living. He had always been a model pupil in primary school. When he was eleven, he finished his primary school education and obtained a certificate with mention bien. In view of his good academic results, his illiterate mother wanted him to become a primary school teacher. She applied for a scholarship for Ali after being told to do so by some colonists who had come to visit her. Ali was denied the scholarship—it was the only application rejected by the school—that could have enabled him to further his studies. He noted that sons of colonists with worse grades than he obtained their scholarships. When Ali learned of his scholarship rejection, he told his mother that Algeria was not his country and that his country was on the other side of the Mediterranean, even though he was against colonization. He said that as a teenager, he would dream that he was in front of maps and show France to his mother. Ali first worked as a mason, and then in a hardware shop when he was fourteen. He said that hardware shop owner was a Frenchman who came from France, was an admirable man who treated him like his son and with whom he would eat on the same table. Ali started to play association football when he was twelve and practice cycling when he was fifteen.World War II and early running career
Mimoun enlisted in the French Army in 1939 when he was about 18 years old. In the same year, he was posted to the 19th infantry regiment. In September 1939, he was mobilised to the Franco-Belgian border. He spent nine months there in anticipation of the German offensive campaign – the Battle of Belgium. He engaged in combat at the Franco-Belgian border. After the fall of Belgium to the Germans in May 1940, his regiment retreated south into northern France, where he avoided being captured by the German army near Valenciennes. After France was defeated by the Germans in June 1940, Mimoun was posted to Bourg-en-Bresse in the Free Zone of Vichy France. When he was there, he discovered almost by accident a talent for long-distance running. He said that he joined in a race as he was passing a suburban track with some friends. While he was in Bourg-en-Bresse, he would train regularly in a stadium next to the military barracks. One day, he competed in some local racing events without any preparations. He won his first running event, the 1,500-metre Ain departmental championship, in front of 4,000 spectators. In that event, he beat the defending champion, thus ending his six-year reign as champion. He then finished a 5,000-meter race in under sixteen minutes. This prompted a local journalist to write, "A marathoner is born. He could become an Olympic champion." In 1942, Mimoun was posted to a regiment of combat engineers based in Besançon. Later that year, he was transferred to Algeria, where he won numerous races on track and in cross country, including the 1942 North African cross country running championship title.Mimoun's running career was interrupted when he was called up to fight for the Western Allies in the Tunisia Campaign and then in the Italian Campaign. In the Tunisia Campaign, he fought under the command of General Henri Giraud against the Afrika Korps. In July 1943, he was sent to fight in the Italian Campaign, where he was a lance corporal in the 83rd combat engineers battalion of the Algerian 3rd infantry division of the French Expeditionary Corps commanded by Marshal Alphonse Juin. On 28 January 1944, during the Battle of Monte Cassino, Mimoun was seriously injured by fragmentation in his left leg originating from shells fired by the Germans. American doctors working in the field hospital recommended its amputation. Determined not to lose his leg, he refused. Fortunately, a French surgeon there managed to successfully perform an operation and his left leg was saved. He was later sent to a Naples hospital for convalescence. He recovered sufficiently to the extent that he could still engage in military combat in the last part of World War II. In the summer of 1944, Lance Corporal Mimoun participated in the Allied invasion of France from the Mediterranean Sea. After that campaign, he was involved in the liberation of the Jura Mountains from the German troops. He spent the winter of 1944–1945 in the Vosges Mountains before taking part in the Western Allied invasion of Germany. He spent about one year in Germany.
After his stint in the army in Europe had ended, Mimoun returned to Algeria where he continued to participate in running events. He was demobilised in 1946 while he was in Algiers. Upon leaving the French Army after seven years of service, he moved from Algeria to Paris. There, he signed up with the Racing Club de France, a famous sports club, and began calling himself Alain. The club arranged for him to work as a waiter in the café-bar of its facilities, which were then located in the Bois de Boulogne, and Mimoun would train in that park. In October 2002 and March 2012, Mimoun spoke of his difficult return to civilian life, "I was a café waiter. I did not have enough to eat. I won four Olympic medals while I was living in a small, two-room apartment without heating, shower and toilet."
Mimoun caused a major surprise by finishing second in the 1946 French national championships 10,000-meter race, despite having lost a shoe during the race. He made his international debut the following year when he represented France in an athletics meeting against Czechoslovakia in Prague. He established himself at national level in 1947 when he clinched his first French national championships titles, taking a track double in the 5,000 metres and 10,000 metres races.
Running career from 1948 onwards
Before the 1956 Olympic Games
Mimoun rose to international prominence at the 1948 Summer Olympics. He was the runner-up in the 10,000 m final held at the Wembley Stadium on 31 July, behind the Czechoslovak runner Emil Zátopek. Zátopek was dominant and lapped all competitors bar Mimoun and bronze medallist Bertil Albertsson. Mimoun finished 47.8 seconds and more than 300 meters behind Zátopek. Mimoun also ran in the 5,000 m event of the 1948 Summer Olympics but did not progress to the final round. The following year he won the 5,000 m and 10,000 m French national championships titles and won his first major race at the International Cross Country Championships in Dublin, finishing ahead of compatriot Raphaël Pujazon in the individual event. He also led France to the team title.He claimed cross country and 10,000 m French national championships titles in 1950, but on the international stage he was again second best to Zátopek, taking the silver medals in the 5,000 m and 10,000 m events at the 1950 European Athletics Championships. At the 1950 International Cross Country Championships he was runner-up to Belgium's Lucien Theys in the individual race, but retained the team title with France. He won the 5,000 m and 10,000 m gold medals
at the 1951 Mediterranean Games and swept the French national championships 5,000 m, 10,000 m and cross country titles in both 1951 and 1952.
Mimoun topped the podium for the individual and team events at the International Cross Country Championships in March 1952. The 1952 Helsinki Olympics saw by now a familiar sight: Zátopek claimed victory in the 5,000 m and 10,000 m races and Mimoun was the silver medallist in both. In the 10,000 m final Mimoun finished 15.8 seconds behind Zátopek, but 15.4 seconds ahead of the bronze medallist Aleksandr Anufriyev. In the 5,000 m final, Mimoun, Herbert Schade and Christopher Chataway were in the lead entering the final bend of the last lap, with Zátopek in fourth place. Zátopek then made his move, and he took the lead halfway through the final bend and never relinquished it. Zátopek finished the 5,000 m race 4.5m and 0.8 second ahead of Mimoun, with the latter improving his personal best by over 14 seconds. His second-place finishes behind the Czechoslovak champion gave Mimoun the nickname "Zátopek's Shadow".
Away from Zátopek, Mimoun continued to dominate the French scene and claimed a third individual title at the International Cross Country Championships in 1954, although a foot injury left him unable to compete at the 1954 European Athletics Championships later that year. His 1955 was highlighted by the successful defence of his 5,000m and 10,000m track titles at both the 1955 Mediterranean Games and the French national championships.
On 10 October 1955 in Algiers, Mimoun beat the French national record for the one hour run that had been held by Jean Bouin since 6 July 1913. On that day, Mimoun ran a distance of 19 km 78 metres, compared to the 19 km 21 metres ran by Bouin on 6 July 1913 in Stockholm.
Mimoun began 1956 in strong form, capturing the French national championships 5,000m, 10,000m and cross country titles, and winning what would be his fourth and final individual title at the International Cross Country Championships.