Robert Parienté Dead

Members Area In the News
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THE PASSING OF PARIENTE IS ANOTHER BLOW TO THE COVERAGE OF THE SPORT IN WHICH MORE THAN EVER ‘OPINION’ IS EXPEDIENTLY USED INSTEAD OF ‘ANALYSIS’, AND ‘PERSONALITIES’ ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN ‘PERFORMANCES’. TOO FEW REPORTERS EVEN RECOGNISE THE DIFFERENCE, SO THE SUPPORT FOR THOSE WITH REAL TECHNICAL UNDERSTANDING OF THE BASIS OF PERFORMANCE HAS ALSO SADLY WANED. kk :frowning:

OBITUARY
Robert Parienté (b. 19 Sep 1930 Paris) died in Paris on May 27, aged 75. A law graduate, he was France’s best known athletics journalist.

He joined, in 1954, the famous sports newspaper L’Equipe, becoming editor in chief of Olympic sports in 1964, editor in chief in 1976 and retiring in 1996 as deputy general director, also editing the monthly magazine Athlétisme.

Roberto Quercetani writes: "He was a true gentleman of modern times. A longtime member of the ATFS, he honoured both sport and culture in the best possible way.

His many books on athletics included “La fabuleuse histoire des Jeux Olympiques”, with Guy Lagorce (first edition, 1972), “La fabuleuse histoire de l’athlétisme” (1976), “Jazy, Quinze Cents à la une” (1963); as well as several others on various cultural themes, notably including “L’Honneur des Justes”, a novel inspired by “L’Affaire Dreyfus”, a famous case which ignited France in the early years of the 20th century; a masterful “Carnet de Venise” – Venice being one of his favourite cities – and last but by no means least “La Symphonie des Chefs” (2004) – interviews with 70 living maestros from various parts of the world and biographies of the greatest conductors of the past.

This last won him a special prize from the “Académie des Beaux Arts”, one of many honours he received throughout his life.

To close on a bright note, he and I were among the very rare non-American journalists who could claim to have witnessed a world outdoor record (Ralph Mann’s 48.8 for 440yH) and a world indoor record (Jan Johnson’s 5.36 - 17ft 7in. in the PV) on the same day – in the NCAA Championships at Des Moines on 20 June 1970."

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I love to read Parienté’ old articles, each meeting report was a novel. My favourite was the one about Colette Besson’s flop in Helsinki’71. Great insight on sport hearoes failures whose work is not finished until they have face the press.
The literature quality, the sport knowledge and rigorous work are 3 things that too often miss in nowadays newspapers.

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You know PJ, some of these guys made their enemies - whatever you write you will offend someone who think you favoured the other guy or at least did not pay sufficient homage in their direction - but with older guys like Robert (as aloof as he could be) you still knew they would provide some added value to the basic statistic.

The problem is that these days the athletes are not prepared to invest enough quality time in building a relationship with the various reporters.

They are ignorant in thinking all reporters write the same, think the same, have the same knowledge of the sport, so treat them the same.

Then the athletes complain about their public image, when in fact the image which is put to the public is only what they displayed in the shop window :eek: .

They need to take a regular long look into the mirror. But unfortunately the athletes like to live in a world of fantasy (where apparently there is a four-year ban on a reality check).

How else could they ALL believe they will be the next Olympic gold medallist! So this sort of arrogance is built into the territory.

However the journalists don’t live in Fantasia and sometimes when they tell the truth the athlete is dismayed, cannot even recognise this unfamiliar portrait of themselves and become filled with resentment toward the media. It is a very old and awkward dance. kk :rolleyes: