Jean-Baptiste Guégan is a member of the Sport Business Observatory, consultant in Sport Geopolitics, teacher, lecturer and author of the Geopolitical Atlas of Sport (with Lukas Aubin)
We didn’t forbid ourselves anything. Biographies, works on the history of sport or on the various developments in sport business, they are all there to offer you the most beautiful of summers.
The Tour de France is in full swing. For cycling enthusiasts, this is a great opportunity to immerse themselves in the history of cycling and discover that of Alberto Contador. One of only seven riders to win all three of road cycling’s grand tours has a story that’s as fascinating as it is incredible. No book paid homage to the leader everyone is talking about. This omission has now been rectified.
The immense Spanish champion with such a particular trajectory benefits from a remarkable biography published by Talents Editions and signed by Clément Pernia and Julien Moreau. The two journalists questioned more than forty witnesses. At the mercy of an alert pen, they offer us the unvarnished portrait of an extraordinary talent sanctioned for doping but also the story of a champion whose career could have stopped in his early twenties following a stroke. A remarkable book to read and to offer.
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Summer marks the return of major tournaments. From the Women’s Football World Cup to Wimbledon or the Summer League, the sports offer does not weaken, but the major events are often experienced through television. To discover behind the scenes, Charles Thiallier and Jérémy Sahakian invite us to discover twenty of the best-known commentators, recounting their trajectories and the moments of happiness that their job has given us all. Among the witnesses retained, we find in particular Anne-Sophie Bernadi, Julien Brun, Benjamin Da Silva, George Eddy or Matthieu Lartot. An easy-to-read book on the beach that will perfectly accompany the back-to-school release of Commentaries of legend, the book that Thomas Lage will publish at Amphora.
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To read alsoMatthieu Lartot has “the morale at the top”, after his amputation of the right leg
Nothing like a book to prepare for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. For those who want to know everything about Olympism, A World History of Olympism is for you. Through 36 articles, this volume looks back on the 130 years of the Games. From their rebirth under Coubertin to their future, no subject is eluded. Signed by some of the most recognized academics and specialists, the whole is extremely pleasant.
Precise and accessible, each of the contributions offers us a perfect example of what popularization should be. Directed in particular by Nicolas Bancel, Pascal Blanchard, Gilles Boëtsch, Daphné Bolz, Yvan Gastaut, Sandrine Lemaire and Stéphane Mourlane, this book is a must read for this last summer with games.
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A few weeks before the Rugby World Cup, it’s time to discover a Blue like no other. Gaël Fickou is a pillar of French rugby, a figure of the oval. And yet, no one really knows this big guy who plays in the center. After leaving the Stade Français for Racing, the vice-captain of the XV of France is discovered as rarely over the pages. Called up for the France team at the age of 18, he tells us how sport allowed him to change his destiny.
He omits nothing of his disappointments and what rugby has changed for him. From his Senegalese roots to his civic engagement with children, from his transfers to his relations with Guy Novès or Bernard Laporte, you will know everything and above all you will better understand who the man behind the player is. With this biography, it’s another way of giving back to the oval ball what it has given and taught it.
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For those who want to take a step back and think about sport differently, there is a book to dwell on: The Geopolitical Economy of sport. It is an academic summaries published in English by Routledge and edited by scholars Simon Chadwick, Paul Widdop and Michael M. Goldman. Impressive at first sight, it is one of the first works to explore the geopolitical economy of sport.
From Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to the Beijing Winter Olympics and the World Cup in Qatar, this book brings together studies from experts around the world. Ideal for better understanding what is at stake in sport today. From the facilities offered by oil to invest in sport to the accusations of sport washing, the authors invite us to take a step back and mobilize new concepts to apprehend a reality that goes far beyond sport.
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Very complementary to the excellent book by Yoav Dubinski, Nation Branding and Sports Diplomacy which has just been published by Palgrave Macmillan, the book edited by Simon Chadwick, Paul Widdop and their colleague from the University of San Francisco pursues the ideas for works of geopolitics of sport available in French such as the Atlas geopolitics geopolitics of sport published last school year by Otherwise.