They will receive a prestigious prize for their book on the Olympic Games

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It's a sports book, but not only that. It is an art object, but not only that. “It’s the art of sport,” sums up Pierre-Louis Basse. The journalist and writer, based in Bernay (Eure), published last spring The gold rushin duet with Ernest Pignon-Ernestprecursor of urban art in France.

Over the course of 300 pages, thirty-six major figures of Olympic Games modern are presented in words and drawings (Teddy Riner, Nadia Comaneci, Usain Bolt, Emil Zatopek, Cassius Clay, Marie-José Perec, Thierry Rey…). To Pierre-Louis Basse the chiselled texts, to Ernest Pignon-Ernest the remarkable illustrations.

“A very beautiful emotion”

The work of both authors was rewarded. The Sports Writers Association awarded them the prestigious Tristan Bernard prizein the “Beautiful book” category, which distinguishes a work illustrated by the most original documents. “Through the quality of the images but also the texts, it contributes to the beauty and greatness of sport,” specifies the association’s website.

Chaired by the historian Thomas Bauer, the jury is notably composed of the writers Bernard Morlino and Pierre Assouline, member of the Goncourt academy, the former athlete Maryse Ewanjé-Epée, the sports historian Claude Boli, the journalist and publisher Benoît Heimermann.

“The vote was unanimous, it’s a very beautiful emotion,” reacts Pierre-Louis Basse, already winner of the career award in 2013. A happiness all the more intense as it is shared with his friend Ernest Pignon-Ernest.

“Maybe I will do just one book with him,” confides the man who was decorated with the Order of Merit in March 2024. He rarely drew on sport and it was not a given, because he hesitated before taking the plunge. . I can say that I convinced him. »

“Ernest is a big sports fan”

The two comrades felt the desire to recreate imagination and adventure in a world of images. Throughout the summer of 2023, the former advisor to François Hollande locked himself in his home, read a lot, before writing his biographical stories.

“And when I saw Ernest’s drawings, I said to myself ‘this is wonderful’,” he remembers. Some extend over a double page, worthy of paintings. The stories told go beyond performances, they transcribe trajectories, an era, an evolving societywithout ever ignoring the political dimension of sport.

“It’s my own adolescence which is rewarded”, smiles the journalist, commentator of football matches on the microphone of Europe 1 in the past, he whose career has always been made up of sport, culture, history and policy.

“And Ernest is a big sports fan, he climbed Mont Ventouxhe collected images of champions in iron boxes,” he adds, also satisfied to have gone “to the end of the adventure.”

The meeting between art and writing

Currently on display in Lille, the visual artist's drawings were also in Bernay, at the Alexandre gallery, during the summer. “It’s a beautiful encounter between art and writing,” enthuses Pierre-Louis Basse, remembering the audacity of his publisher José Carlin Perez, the founder of En Exergue.

The book is selling well. And he will now continue his beautiful life, adorned with his headband displaying in the eyes of the public the prize which will be officially presented on December 9 in Paris at the headquarters of the National Olympic Committee. Pierre-Louis Basse will be accompanied by Ernest Pignon-Ernest, currently working in Havana.

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