54 Facts About 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.

Alain Mimoun was the 1956 Olympic champion in the marathon.

Alain Mimoun is the most bemedalled French athletics sportsperson in history.

Alain Mimoun was the silver medallist in both events behind Zatopek at the 1950 European Athletics Championships.

Alain Mimoun settled in metropolitan France shortly after leaving the French army.

Alain Mimoun continued to run in his later life and set a number of veteran age-category records.

Alain Mimoun was born Ali Mimoun Ould Kacha in the arrondissement of Maider in the town of Telagh, Algeria, into a very poor, Arab-Berber family.

Alain Mimoun had always been a model pupil in primary school.

Alain Mimoun applied for a scholarship for Ali after being told to do so by some colonists who had come to visit her.

Alain Mimoun noted that sons of colonists with worse grades than he obtained their scholarships.

Alain Mimoun said that as a teenager, he would dream that he was in front of maps and show France to his mother.

Alain Mimoun 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.

Alain Mimoun enlisted in the French Army in 1939 when he was about 18 years old.

Alain Mimoun said that he joined in a race as he was passing a suburban track with some friends.

Alain Mimoun won his first running event, the 1,500-metre Ain departmental championship, in front of 4,000 spectators.

Alain Mimoun then finished a 5,000-meter race in under sixteen minutes.

Alain 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.

On 28 January 1944, during the Battle of Monte Cassino, Alain Mimoun was seriously injured by fragmentation in his left leg originating from shells fired by the Germans.

Alain Mimoun was later sent to a Naples hospital for convalescence.

Alain Mimoun recovered sufficiently to the extent that he could still engage in military combat in the last part of World War II.

Alain Mimoun was demobilised in 1946 while he was in Algiers.

Alain Mimoun made his international debut the following year when he represented France in an athletics meeting against Czechoslovakia in Prague.

Alain Mimoun 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.

Alain Mimoun rose to international prominence at the 1948 Summer Olympics.

Alain Mimoun finished 47.8 seconds and more than 300 meters behind Zatopek.

Alain Mimoun 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.

Alain Mimoun topped the podium for the individual and team events at the International Cross Country Championships in March 1952.

Away from Zatopek, Alain 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.

Alain Mimoun's 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 Oct 1955 in Algiers, Alain Mimoun beat the French national record for the one hour run that had been held by Jean Bouin since 6 July 1913.

Alain 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.

Alain Mimoun was certain that day would be his lucky day.

The day before the marathon, Alain Mimoun received a telegram from his wife, Germaine, back in France telling him of the birth of their first child, a daughter called Olympe.

The mustachioed Alain Mimoun had a white bandana, embroidered with his wife's initials, tied around the top of his head since the start of the race to protect himself from the sun's rays.

Alain Mimoun surged forward in the uphill section of the course near the top of the hill, ran past Kelley and was solely in the lead before the halfway point of the marathon.

Alain Mimoun crossed the finish line in a time of 2:25:00,1 minute and 32 seconds ahead of the runner-up Franjo Mihalic, in front of 110,000 spectators at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and before any other runner had entered the stadium.

Alain Mimoun had expected to see his great rival and close friend Zatopek finish second behind him.

Alain Mimoun waited at the finish line for the Czechoslovak runner to arrive.

Alain Mimoun seemed to be in a trance, staring straight ahead.

Alain Mimoun revealed that before leaving for Melbourne for the 1956 Olympics, he had done his final training in the Correze village of Bugeat, which resembled his native village in Algeria.

Alain Mimoun did not compete in 1957 but returned in 1958 with a runner-up finish behind Stan Eldon in the individual race at the International Cross Country Championships and his first national marathon title.

Alain Mimoun placed seventh in the 10,000-meter event at the 1958 European Athletics Championships.

Alain Mimoun made the French team for the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome and placed 34th in the marathon.

Alain Mimoun won a total of more than 80 French national running championships titles, including those for veteran athletes, the last one while in his seventies.

Alain Mimoun worked as a waiter in a cafe-bar at the Racing Club de France and as a physical education instructor in France after the end of World War II.

In 1997, Alain Mimoun protested in the strongest terms against the decision of the Comite national olympique et sportif francais to remove the Gallic rooster from the jerseys of French athletes.

Alain Mimoun received the Sporting Order of Merit, Gloire du sport, and the National Order of Merit.

Alain Mimoun is the first French person of North African origin to receive the Legion of Honour.

Alain Mimoun was chosen as the French L'Equipe Champion of Champions in 1949 and again in 1956.

On 25 Sep 2002 in Argenteuil, Alain Mimoun inaugurated the 50th stadium bearing his name.

Alain Mimoun's wife, Germaine, was born in Tulle, capital of the Correze departement in the Limousin region in central France.

Alain Mimoun asserted that he owed that marathon win to Saint Therese of Lisieux.

Alain Mimoun died at the age of 92 in the evening of 27 June 2013 at the Hopital d'instruction des armees Begin in Saint-Mande, in the departement of Val-de-Marne in the Ile-de-France region.

Alain Mimoun would wake me up at 5:30 in the morning to go and run, and in the evening he would force me to go to bed at 8:30.