Jean-Paul Belmondo: tribute to a sports enthusiast

Virginie Phulpin 7:24 am, September 07, 2021

We are going to talk about Jean-Paul Belmondo's passion for sport.

The sacred monster would not have been totally Bébel without the sport that stuck to his skin. 

There are characters like that that make everyone agree. Jean-Paul Belmondo was of this caliber. So unifying that he had succeeded in combining culture and sport. And that is no small achievement in a country that often seeks to oppose them. He fed on both, passionately. On September 21, 1948, like much of France, the teenager spent the night with his ears glued to his radio station, in hiding from his parents. The object of his desires is the live boxing fight of Marcel Cerdan against the American Tony Yale. A legendary fight which sees the French boxer winning the title of world middleweight champion. The legend Cerdan pushes Jean-Paul Belmondo into a Parisian boxing hall the next day. He is gifted, hardworking, agile, and he even plans to turn professional.He finally chose comedy, but never forgetting boxing. The noble art rather served his vision of the 7th art.

Jean-Paul Belmondo also played football, since childhood, as a goalkeeper.

Because he loved to dive.

And he said that the dives reminded him a little of the cinema.

The actor was as much an athlete as he was a comedian.

It must be said that the one who never wanted an understudy to perform his stunts in his films had rather an interest in having a solid physical condition.

Sport has partly forged his personality and his state of mind.

He made permanent bridges between comedy and sport.

Sport with a capital S, the one that pushes you to surpass yourself and bring out the best in yourself.

Without sport, Jean-Paul Belmondo would not have been Bébel. 

He was a great sports fan as a practitioner, but also as a spectator

"I didn't play all sports, but I liked them all." This is what Jean-Paul Belmondo loved to repeat. For years, we have seen his silhouette of connoisseur installed in a box at Roland Garros. He was almost part of the tournament, the soul of clay. He even refused filming during the Parisian fortnight, fond of the slightest exchange from the baseline. Even as a wise spectator, Jean-Paul Belmondo lived the sport. He was even directly involved in the creation of Paris St Germain, he put his money into it, he invested, alongside Daniel Hechter in particular, to give birth to the Parisian club. He remained a supporter, even if today's football did not make him so vibrate. Too much money, he said.

But Jean-Paul Belmondo was not the type to always find that sport was better before. Not at all. He really liked Tony Yoka, for example. The boxing champion will play his 11th pro fight on Friday night, and it will be at Roland Garros. As a final tribute to Bébel and his sporting passions united. Sport with flashbacks. It feels like a movie.