In Neubourg, Gérard Holtz in Olympic form at Viking

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“I feel more like an actor than a journalist,” says Gérard Holtz straight away. The Eure Courier had the pleasure to chat with the famous sports journalist and television presenter during his visit to Neubourg (Eure), Friday November 15, 2024. Before attending his new conference-show, on the Viking stage.

“I was 17 when I fell in love with the theater and I told myself that one day I would go on stage,” remembers Gérard Holtz. I took theater classes and I always asserted my tenacity. It’s one of my characteristics. Later, second love at first sight for journalism. People like Jacques Paoli got me started and I made my way which led me to Antenna 2 et FR3still in the public service. »

Sixteen Olympic Games to his credit

The sports journalist recalls the long list of events he followed, including sixteen Olympic Games, summer and winter combineda countless number of cycling Tours de France, the Paris-Dakar, and so many others.

“But I continued to act simultaneously, which was not easy,” confides Gérard Holtz. I still love the great classics, Molière, Racine, and for sixteen years, I was part of the Versailles troupe. I constantly separated my sporting activity and that of acting. Until the day I found something common to bothand that’s when I created my show Long live sport and its little secrets ».

Nothing is more beautiful than moving people.

In the wake of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the journalist gives a conference-show on stage relating to the history of the Olympic Games. “My activities as a sports journalist have allowed me to know well stories to which the public generally does not have access and which I reveal on stage. Nothing is more beautiful than moving people and I hope to achieve this, once again,” he says.

The enthusiastic spectators, often the same ones who followed him for many years on the small screen, were not disappointed. After an entrance with a quasi-Olympic torch – he carried the true flame – Gérard Holtz captivated the public with dozens of anecdotes, the first dating from the origins of Olympicism in 776 BC, in Olympia, Greece, where athletes had to run naked, because there were already cheaters!

He explains, with unabashed verve, why the marathon measures 42.195 km these days when originally it was only 40 km. The answer: “it was to please Edward VII, King of England in 1908, who wanted that the departure takes place at Windsor Castle and the arrival under the royal stand ! »

A host of anecdotes

Throughout an hour and a half of fascinating and lively presentation, Gérard Holtz focused on the character of Baron Pierre de Coubertin, brilliant organizer of the modern Olympic Games, but inveterate misogynist, who never accepted that women participate. Female athletes were only present at the Olympics from 1928. Another story: Karoly Takacs, right-handed shooting champion, was forced to become left-handed because his right hand was destroyed by a grenade. His will was such that he won a second gold medal during the 1952 games. “He had passed the weapon to the left,” jokes Gérard Holtz.

An exciting evening for spectators, which once again demonstrates the variety of the program of shows offered to Neubourgeois.

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