“There comes a time when we have to give way”: after the Olympics, projects… journalist Nelson Monfort speaks before his visit to Gard

Almost two months after the closing ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, one month after that of the Paralympics, how are you following these exceptional sporting moments?

I’m doing very well. It was such a privilege, an extraordinary moment to have been able to follow these Games at home. It is difficult to experience something stronger. There are a lot of things that make it a pretty unique moment.

You have, in sporting terms, an extremely rich career. But how were these Games “at home” different for you?

I think it’s the same as for athletes. Participating in events “at home” is really much stronger than being in Tokyo or Beijing or Rio. For me, and I think I can speak for most of my colleagues, it’s the same thing. It was a pressure, extremely positive. And in all modesty, even if I don’t know in the end if it was me who brought them luck or they who brought me luck – supporting these athletes, like Léon Marchand with his four gold medals, was a very strong moment.

What moments do you remember from these Games?

Considering that athletics and swimming are the two king Olympic sports, swimming has led to some great moments with Léon Marchand. And to a lesser degree, but it made me very happy for him, Maxime Grousset who finally obtained a medal, bronze, but really not far from silver… On a more general level, in athletics, the victory of American sprinter Noah Lyles in the 100m, touched me a lot, because he is a boy whose career and journey I have followed since the beginning. It’s a nice revenge on life.

You were during these Olympics, in the living room, the office of millions of French people, accompanying the victories and the disillusionments. Are you aware of this?

I especially don’t want anyone to take this as pretension, which would be unlike me at all, but it’s true that over the years I have forged a special bond with viewers. There was someone who said a very nice thing to me one day, it was “the whole of France calls you by your first name”. I didn’t realize that, but there is some truth in it and it touches me a lot.

How do we prepare for a global event? We can’t imagine that you would come there with your hands in your pockets…

I like this expression, of course we don’t come with our hands in our pockets, I am interested in the careers of my future interlocutors. Whether for French or international champions. But I do it more out of passion than out of obligation.

Do we manage to build relationships with certain athletes? We realize that they know who you are.

This is true for French athletes, it is necessarily true, by necessity for internationals. But whether it’s swimming or athletics, in the morning you have the heats. Besides, at the Stade de France, you already had 70,000 people in the morning, which has never happened. And I was among those 70,000 people, even though it wasn’t broadcast. Except that the runners you see in the morning are the ones you will see in the evening. And there, they have a very clear ability to remember that this or that person was there in the morning and give them a certain priority. I have always done it this way, because it is a form of respect for my interlocutors. And, in any case, I do it very willingly because it fascinates me, whether we are on the air or not.

Do you ever feel tired of your job?

How can we feel tired at the Olympic Games, especially at home? If I felt it, I would have stopped a long time ago! Then, whether in tennis, in skating, in athletics, there is a renewal of formidable generations, which prevents any weariness. And often, I found myself as a consultant, I found as a consultant athletes that I had worked with, like Stéphane Diagana for athletics or Philippe Candeloro for skating. It’s very touching.

You have also created a memorable commentary duo with Philippe Candeloro. Will we see you together again?

In life, there are certain doors that open, others that close, and that is undoubtedly what will happen for me this fall. And that’s very good. It is by mutual agreement. I’m not saying that I have covered the issue, because I feel full of enthusiasm, but there comes a time when we have to give up some of the space. I will always be on special operations, major meetings, but in a slightly different way. And I really have a certain serenity about that. Even if when, next year, the Roland-Garros tennis tournament opens, there will be a little pang in the heart. But that’s normal, that’s life.

Exactly, what will this “after” represent for you, at the end of a very rich career?

Already, everything fascinates me: the arts, literature, music, sculpture, painting, etc. I have a literary activity, I have already published a few books, even out of respect for writers, I consider myself more as an author. I made a vacation notebook called A summer of sport with Nelson Monfort. I’m thinking of renewing it next year. And I have the book Olympic Memoriespublished by Robert-Laffont, which I will certainly update with Jeux de Paris for release by the end of the year ⁽¹⁾.

You responded to the invitation from the Nîmes Doyen and Saint-Hilaire-de-Brethmas Lions Clubs to host, on Tuesday October 8 in Nîmes, a conference-debate around the Olympic Games. You have a certain affinity with our region, if only by mentioning the Women’s Trophy, a tennis competition which took place in Cap-d’Agde and where you made your interviewing debut.

How can you not love this region? The Gard, the Hérault… the whole south which goes from Montpellier to Pézenas via Nîmes. And it turns out that indeed my very first report for television, which I consider to be my lucky charm because it all started there, was within a tournament which no longer exists today, the Trophée de the woman, in Cap-d’Agde, who brought together the four best players in the world.

I also have a love for Georges-Brassens. And I launched a show a few years ago with a Sétois who is a saxophonist, Fred Karato with whom we did a tour-show tribute to Georges-Brassens, which was called Les amis d’abord. And we will renew it in 2025 ⁽²⁾. I am a storyteller-singer, there are 7 or 8 musicians in a slightly jazzy style. And for the record, we played, just before the health crisis, at the Théâtre de la Mer, in Sète, which is not just any place, on the occasion of the Saint-Louis Festival.

If you had to extract two or three memorable memories from your career, what would they be?

I remember at this Women’s Trophy Martina Navratilova, who never hid her sexual orientations, which I find really admirable especially given the time, and who told me in a post-tennis match interview , her desire to have a child. That’s when I told myself that it was possible to go beyond “how did you feel when you were at 15-30, two everywhere in the first set”. It taught me a lot. Accompanying of course exceptional careers in tennis, like that of Rafael Nadal, 14 victories at Roland-Garros and, each time, the first person he spoke to, because the protocol required it, was me. By force of circumstances, there were links that were forged. And then I also accompanied the careers of Carl Lewis and Usain Bolt.

Isn’t it hard to see these great athletes “hang up”?

The hardest part is there, for them above all. When you hang up your crampons or something else, there is a shape of a little death with a light that suddenly goes out. And it’s true that you have to have a strong heart to endure that. And it’s beyond the charts or whatever, everyone’s pretty much on the same page. It’s true that I have often spoken in seminars or conferences on the retraining of athletes, because it is not just professional, it is also almost spiritual. It’s very intimate. Sometimes we will criticize by saying “he had one match or one fight too many”, but I will never come across people like that. When we were first, even if we go fourth, we remain competitive. There is this desire, perhaps, not to be forgotten. Even if it won’t happen to Rafael Nadal. But it’s not just Nadals. I saw a former football goalkeeper for the France team, who had two or three caps, picking up balls from a golf practice. But who am I to judge that? I prefer to have sympathy and empathy in the face of all this.

Thinking about the future for an athlete can sometimes be difficult when we know that what counts is the performance of the moment.

Few think about what’s next. I have sometimes intervened in clubs like Auxerre or Metz, and I realized exactly that: athletes live in the present moment, which they wish to prolong as much as possible, to the detriment of the aftermath which, sometimes, can even scare them.

What will you discuss during this conference debate on October 8?

The timing is pretty good right after the Olympics. I’m a rather enthusiastic, smiling, positive person, that’s all I want to convey.