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Raymond Pointu, a French sports journalist whose career made him one of the country's leading voices on athletics and the Olympic Games, died on 2 September 2026. He was 86. His family announced the death; French media including média+ and L'Equipe reported it the following day. Born on 28 February…
Raymond Pointu, a French sports journalist whose career made him one of the country's leading voices on athletics and the Olympic Games, died on 2 September 2026. He was 86. His family announced the death; French media including média+ and L'Equipe reported it the following day.
Born on 28 February 1940 in Clermont-Ferrand, Pointu began covering athletics in 1964 at Miroir Sprint and later at Miroir de l'athletisme, where he also served as editor-in-chief until 1973. From 1970 to 1977 he wrote athletics columns for Le Monde. In 1976 he received the Prix Martini for the best sports article, a mark of standing among French sports writers of his generation.
In 1977 he joined Agence France-Presse, remaining until retirement in 2005. At AFP he was remembered as a pillar of the sports desk and head of its prestigious athletics beat, later also covering tennis and the Olympic movement. Former colleague Didier Herbillon recalled that when a question arose about Olympic sport, colleagues turned to Pointu for an immediate answer and an expert framing of the tartan track. Philippe Bravo called him a writer of great class and a major pen who had known leading French athletes such as Alain Mimoun and Roger Bambuck.
Beyond the wire service, Pointu sat on the International Olympic Committee press commission from 1980 to 1990 and helped organize the Barcelona Games as head of the Alcatel press computing programme from 1990 to 1992. He wrote books on Olympism and athletics, among them a critical study of Juan Antonio Samaranch, a century of Olympic Games, 100 champions for a century of sport with Benoit Heimermann, and Les Marathons olympiques covering Athens 1896 to Athens 2004. In 2013 the Groupement des Internationaux Francais d'Athletisme awarded him the Prix Robert-Pariente for his body of work, and the Federation des Internationaux du Sport Francais named him a Gloire du sport.
Pointu left a reputation as a specialist who joined daily reporting to institutional memory of French and Olympic athletics. Tributes after his death stressed both his stature in the press box and the clarity he brought to a beat that rewards exact knowledge.
Biography adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), média+, L'Equipe and AFP-linked reports. Wikipedia ↗
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1Raymond Pointu, French sports journalist and athletics specialist
by People Forever
