Marie-José Pérec (born 9 May 1968) is a retired

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

track and field sprinter who specialised in the 200 and 400 metres and is a three-time Olympic gold medalist.

Athletics career

Pérec won the 1991 World Championships 400 metres title in Tokyo and repeated the feat at the 1995 World Championships in

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. She was also the 400 metres champion at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. She entered the 200 metres and 400 metres events at the 1996 Olympic Games in

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and won both, thus achieving the second-ever Olympic 200 metres/400 metres

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have be ...

double, after Valerie Brisco-Hooks in Los Angeles 1984. Pérec won the 400 metres title in an Olympic record time of 48.25 seconds, which also ranked her as the third fastest woman of all time. It took 23 years until 2019 before Salwa Eid Naser surpassed her mark to push Pérec to number 4 of all time. In addition to her Olympic and World titles, Pérec also won the 400 metres title and was a part of the gold medal-winning

4 × 400 metres relay The 4 × 400 metres relay or long relay is an athletics track event in which teams consist of four runners who each complete 400 metres or one lap. It is traditionally the final event of a track meet. At top class events, the ...

team at the 1994 European Championships in Helsinki. The two 1996 Olympic titles were Pérec's last international titles. In 1997 Pérec shifted to the 200 metres but withdrew at the semi-finals in the World Championships that year and barely raced at all in 1998 and 1999. Having not run a 400 metres race since 1996, Pérec began her Olympic title defense by finishing third in Nice, behind eventual Olympic silver and bronze medalists

Lorraine Graham Lorraine Fenton (born Lorraine Graham on 8 September 1973 in Manchester) is a retired Jamaican athlete who specialized in the 400 metres. Career Her career highlight came when she won the Olympic silver medal in 2000, being the first Jamaican ...

and

Katharine Merry Katharine Merry (born 21 September 1974) is an English former sprinter. She won the bronze medal in the 400 metres at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and was the fastest woman in the world over 400 m in 2001, with her career best of 49.59 seconds. She ...

. It was the last significant race Pérec ran. On 22 September 2000, she pulled out of the 200 metres and 400 metres events of the

2000 Olympic Games The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

in Sydney, several days before they were due to begin. Pérec claimed that she had been threatened and insulted several times since arriving in Australia and that the Australian press, who were supporting Australian athlete Cathy Freeman, had been trying to sabotage her chances of winning the gold medal in the 400 metres. Pérec trained in

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, with the HSI track team and is listed as a legend on the team's page.

Life after retirement from athletics

Pérec enrolled in the top French business school

ESSEC The École Supérieure des Sciences Economiques et Commerciales (more commonly ESSEC Business School or ESSEC) is a major French business and management school, with non-profit association status (French association law of 1901) founded in 190 ...

and graduated in 2007 with a Master's in Sports Management. Pérec is a member of the ‘Champions for Peace’ club, a group of more than 70 famous elite athletes committed to promoting peace in the world through sports, created by Peace and Sport, a

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-based international organization. On 21 October 2012, Pérec was elected president of the Ligue Régionale d'Athlétisme de la Guadeloupe, the governing body for athletics in Guadeloupe. Pérec participated in the French reality music competition ''Mask Singer'' as the Panthère, performing Stromae's " Papaoutai" and Angèle's "Balance ton quoi" before being eliminated in the first episode.

Family

Pérec gave birth to her first child, a son named Nolan, on 30 March 2010. Pérec's partner Sébastien Foucras is the father of the child.

Awards

Pérec was chosen as the French Champion of Champions in 1992 and 1996 by the French sports daily ''

L'Équipe ''L'Équipe'' (, French for "the team") is a French nationwide daily newspaper devoted to sport, owned by Éditions Philippe Amaury. The paper is noted for coverage of association football, rugby, motorsport, and cycling. Its predecessor ...

''. On 9 October 2013, Pérec was awarded the Officier de la Légion d'honneur by French President

François Hollande François Gérard Georges Nicolas Hollande (; born 12 August 1954) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2012 to 2017. He previously was First Secretary of the Socialist Party (France), First Secretary of the Socialist P ...

in the Élysée Palace. Just before presenting the insignia to Pérec during the award ceremony, Hollande described her as "one of the most brilliant athletes in the history of French athletics". Pérec had received the Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur in 1996. On 16 November 2013, Pérec was inducted into the IAAF Hall of Fame.

Personal bests

*Rankings outside the brackets are world rankings *Rankings inside the brackets are European *FR = French record *OR = Olympic record

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Perec, Marie-Jose 1968 births Living people Black French sportspeople French female sprinters Olympic athletes of France Olympic gold medalists for France Athletes (track and field) at the 1988 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1992 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1996 Summer Olympics Guadeloupean female sprinters French people of Guadeloupean descent Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics World Athletics Championships medalists European Athletics Championships medalists Officiers of the Légion d'honneur European champions for France Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field) World Athletics Championships winners Olympic female sprinters People from Basse-Terre