Marie-José Pérec

Marie-José Pérec, born on 9 May 1968 in Guadeloupe, is a retired French sprinter who specialised in the 200 and 400 metres and won three Olympic gold medals. She moved to Paris at sixteen and first ran for France at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. She won the 400 metres at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and at the 1996 Atlanta Games took both the 200 and 400 metres, the second woman to do that Olympic double, running the 400 in an Olympic record of 48.25 seconds. She was also world 400 metres champion in 1991 and 1995 and European champion in 1994. She withdrew from the 2000 Sydney Games and retired in 2004, and she was inducted into the IAAF Hall of Fame in 2013. In 2024 she lit the Olympic cauldron at the Paris opening ceremony with Teddy Riner.