He won Olympic gold by winning the marathon at the 1956 Melbourne Games, twelve years after being seriously injured while serving in the French army during the Second World War.
The camp set up on the lawn of Reuilly, in the east of Paris, to accommodate up to 5,000 soldiers during the 2024 Olympics will be named “Corporal Alain Mimoun”, the military governor of the capital announced this Tuesday, General Christophe Abad.
“Alain Mimoun embodies the Olympic soldier par excellence,” underlines the officer.
His life, during battles as well as on the athletics tracks, must inspire our youth with what it represents in terms of commitment, courage and surpassing oneself.
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He was almost amputated after an injury in Italy
Before winning four Olympic medals from 1948 to 1958, Alain Mimoun discovered athletics during his time in the ranks of the African army during the deadliest conflict in the history of humanity.
Enlisted in 1939, the man who was born in what was still French Algeria had participated in several campaigns in North Africa before being hit in March 1944 in Italy, narrowly avoiding the amputation of his left leg.
The future Olympic champion of 1956 then participated in the landing in Provence, before pushing on to Alsace then Germany with his comrades in arms.
Decorated with the Croix de Guerre and the military medal, he then left the army to devote himself to his sport.
Died in 2013 at the age of 92, in June 2023 he gave his name to a street in his town of Champigny-sur-Marne.
The camp, installed on the Reuilly lawn due to its proximity to the capital and the location of the start of the opening ceremony on the Seine, will be operational at the beginning of July.
It will be able to accommodate around half of the soldiers currently planned to be deployed in Ile-de-France during the Olympic Games.
In total, the army must currently provide up to 15,000 soldiers throughout the territory.