The first elite sport training camp in France: Manitot (1912–1924)

Abstract

On the eve of the First World War, a wealthy director of a company, Antoine-Lucien Boyer, has created at Manitot, a small village close to Paris on the riverside of the Seine opposite to Giverny, the first camp of coaching for athletes. Famous boxers like Billy Papke, Georges Carpentier, Eugène Criqui, and Bernard or runners like Jean Bouin have spent a while to prepare their competitions. Taking the opportunity of being at the countryside, these athletes did angling, rowing, and hunting in parallel to their specific sport preparation.

Using different sources like newspapers (L’Auto, L’écho des sports), but also books and archives (public and privates), we aim at relating the history of this first sport camp of coaching and will try to understand the reasons of the landowner for launching this experience. Furthermore, we will review the methods of training and highlight a specifically French approach, based on an eclectic training method determined by health more than by performance.

Keywords:

• Coaching
• history
• sociology
• training
• theory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Private mails exchange, on 5 November 2019.

2 These games were ultimately cancelled due to the ongoing First World War.

3 Jefferson Dickson was a former American legionnaire. Born in Natchez, Mississippi, and married to a French woman, he organised national and international boxing matches in famous entertainment halls such as Salle Wagram, Cirque de Paris, and Vel’ d’Hiv (Vélodrome d'Hiver). He was a prototypical modern businessman, introducing new ways of sport management in France and Europe.

4 Footing consisted of running and walking with friends intertwined with some short speed running distance and shadow boxing. One may considered that it is a kind of a mix model training between fartlek and interval training, but, of course, without using of such concepts. Long-distance training in preparation for bouts of 15 or 20 rounds (longer than an hour in duration) was not apart of the training regimen at the time.