Salim Sdiri (born 26 October 1978) is a French long jumper of Tunisian descent. His personal best is 8.42 metres, achieved in June 2009 at Pierre-Bénite, which is the current French national record. He is also the French national record holder for indoor long jump with an 8.27 m jump in 2006. He has jumped eight meters or more every season since 2002 and has a bronze medallion from the 2007 European Indoor Athletics Championships.
Jacques "Jacky" Boxberger (16 April 1949 – 9 August 2001) was a track and field athlete from France who specialized in long-distance races.
He was the great hope of French middle-distance running, breaking the junior world record in the 1500 metres at Stade Charléty in 1968. He represented France at the 1968, 1972, 1976 and 1984 Summer Olympics, placing sixth in the 1968 1500 metres and 42nd in the 1984 marathon. He also won the Paris Marathon in 1983 and 1985, the 1500 metres title at the 1972 European Athletics Indoor Championships, the Marrakech Marathon in 1987, and French titles in the 1500 metres, 5000 metres, and 10000 metres. He suffered a knee injury during his military service with the Joinville battalion. His career was the most brilliant among male French distance runners of his era behind only that of former world mile record-holder Michel Jazy.Boxberger was part of the French team that finished third at the World Cross Country Championships in 1976.
In 2001, Boxberger was on vacation with his family in Kenya. While he was trying to film an elephant on a safari, the animal picked him up with its trunk, threw him against a tree, and trampled him to death.The middle distance runner Ophélie Claude-Boxberger is his daughter.
Assia El Hannouni (born May 30, 1981, in Dijon) is a French track and field athlete who specialises in the 800 metres Paralympic sprint. She has Retinitis pigmentosa which means that she is almost blind, with less than one tenth vision in her left eye, and zero in her right eye. She also runs against athletes without disabilities, in 800m sprint events.Representing her country at the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens, she won four gold medals, winning the 100m, 200m, 400m and 800m sprints, and breaking the world record in each event.She represented France again at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, and was the country's flagbearer during the Games' opening ceremony. She won silver in the 800m sprint (T13/12) with a time of 2’4’’96, before winning silver in the 1500m, and gold in both the 200m and 400m sprints.In 2007, she set a new world record in the women's 800 metre sprint in her disability category, with a time of 2’6’’76. The same year, she competed against non-disabled athletes in the 800 metres at the French national indoors championships, finishing fifth.As of 2007, El Hannouni is studying journalism at the Institut national du sport et de l'éducation physique (National Institute of Sport and Physical Education).
Franz-Josef Kemper (born 30 September 1945) is a German athlete, Olympian, and official. He achieved his greatest success as a middle-distance runner in the 1960s and 1970s.
Josephus Maria Melchior "Jos" Hermens (born 8 January 1950 in Nijmegen, Gelderland) is a former Dutch long-distance runner. Subsequently, he also became well-known for his later career as a sports manager as the founder and CEO of Global Sports Communication, which manages many Olympian athletes.
Archie Haggie Harris Jr. (July 3, 1918 – October 29, 1965) was an American world-record-setting discus thrower and football player.
Raised in Ocean City, New Jersey, Harris graduated in 1937 from Ocean City High School.As an Indiana University student-athlete, Harris won the 1940 NCAA Track and Field Championships, defending his title 1941 with the world record of 53.26 m. In 1941 he also became US champion. At, Indiana, Harris also played football, lettering on the Indiana Hoosiers football team in 1938, and 1939, and 1940. He was a second-team selection on the 1940 All-Big Ten Conference football team as an end.During World War II Harris joined the United States Army Air Forces, reaching the rank of second lieutenant and serving as a bomber pilot in the 332d Fighter Group, known as the Tuskegee Airmen. An African American, he was unable to find a job as a commercial pilot after the war. He became physical education teacher at the YMCA in Harlem.In 2001 he was inducted into the Indiana University Athletics Hall of Fame.Harris died on October 29, 1965, at Veterans Administration Hospital in New York City.
Colette Besson (7 April 1946 – 9 August 2005) was a French athlete, the surprise winner of the 400 m at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City.
Jean-Paul Bruwier (born 18 February 1971) is a Belgian hurdler. He competed in the men's 400 metres hurdles at the 1996 Summer Olympics.
Jules Ladoumègue (French: [ʒyl ladumɛg]; 10 December 1906 – 2 March 1973) was a French middle-distance runner. He became a running star as the sport enjoyed a huge resurgence at the start of the Great Depression, fueled in large part by newsreel coverage. His career was abruptly cut short when he was banned for life from track for payments he received for several races.
Alexandre François Étienne Jean Bouin (French: [bwɛ̃]; 21 December 1888 – 29 September 1914) was a French middle-distance runner. He competed in the 1500m at the 1908 Olympics and the 5000m at the 1912 Olympics. He won a silver medal in the 5000m in 1912, behind Hannes Kolehmainen. His race against Kolehmainen has long been regarded as one of the most memorable moments in running. Kolehmainen and Bouin quickly pulled away from the others, with Bouin leading and Kolehmainen repeatedly trying to pass him. Kolehmainen succeeded only 20 metres from the finish, winning by 0.1 seconds. Both contenders broke the world record.Bouin set three more world records: two in 1911, in the 3,000 m and 10,000 metres, and one in 1913, in the one-hour run (19,021 metres). The next year, he was killed in action during World War I. After that the Stade Jean-Bouin in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, home of the Stade Français rugby union club, was named after him. The French government made a stamp
with his picture on it and many games have been held in his honor. A 10 km race under the name of Jean Bouin has taken place every year through the streets of Barcelona since 1920.