Sport is undoubtedly an integral part of life in the Principality. Every year the country hosts such exciting events as the Formula 1 Grand Prix, the Monte-Carlo Rally, the E-Prix electric car race, the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters tennis tournament, the Monte-Carlo International Jumping, the prestigious summer swimming and athletics competitions. In 2024, the final stage of the Tour de France was added to this fine list, with competitors starting from the port of Hercule on 21 July. Traditionally, the Tour de France finishes in Paris, but this summer the most eagerly awaited sporting event of the year — the XXXIII Olympic Games in the French capital, where six Monaco athletes competed.
Successes and disappointments: Monaco’s results at the 2024 Olympics
The 2024 Summer Games are the twenty-second for the Principality: Monaco has participated in the Summer Olympics since 1920. Some Olympians from the Monegasque team travelled to the Games for the first time, while others had already had the opportunity to demonstrate their skills at the previous Games in Tokyo. So, how did the representatives of the Principality perform?
Quentin Antognelli, 29, finished 19th in the D final in the single rowing event. In Tokyo he was 15th, but experts say that this year the overall level of athletes was much higher.
The women’s 10-kilometre open water swimming competition took place on 8 August. Prince Albert II of Monaco, Princess Alexandra of Hanover and her friend Ben-Sylvester Strautmann came to cheer on 25-year-old Lisa Pu. Before the start, the competitors were concerned not so much about the quality of the water in the river, but about the unusually strong current. In the end, Lisa finished eighteenth with a time of 2:07:05.4, with the gold going to Sharon van Rauwendaal of the Netherlands.
‘I really wasn’t in the best physical shape, although I felt pretty good,’ Lisa said after the finish. — The swim itself was very problematic: from start to finish it was a story of survival… I am very disappointed with my results: to finish so far behind first place is just unacceptable.
Another swimmer from Monaco, 19-year-old Theo Drouinne, finished thirty-first in the 800 metres freestyle qualifying heat and did not qualify for the final.
25-year-old track and field athlete Marie-Charlotte Gastaud was sixth in the 100m qualifying heat. This prevented her from reaching the semi-finals, but Marie-Charlotte broke her personal best with a time of 12:41.
Judoka Marvin Gadot, competing in the over 100kg weight category, lost in his first match. It is worth noting that the 23-year-old Monegasque’s opponent was the experienced Cuban Andy Granda, fifth in the world rankings and 2022 world champion.
Finally, the biggest disappointment of the current Games for Monaco was the defeat of Xiaoxin Yang in her first match. The 36-year-old, tenth in the Olympic table tennis rankings and fifteenth in the world rankings, unexpectedly lost to Hana Matelova (2:4).
Support of His Serene Highness
Prince Albert II knows more than anyone how important the support of the fans is for athletes. ‘Of course, we would have liked to see other results, not to mention medals. We had hoped for higher scores, but this is sport,’ said the Prince, himself a participant in five Olympics. — ‘The Olympic Games is an unprecedented competition that goes far beyond sport. It is something completely unique. Here you need to be able to adapt to the most different conditions. Lisa Pu, who took part in a very difficult 10 kilometre swim, coped with it very well.’
The Prince stressed that, in any case, he was proud of the participation of the Monaco athletes who defended the Principality’s honour and that the experience gained at the Paris Olympics would help them to be better prepared for the next major competitions.
Ceremony in honour of John Kelly Sr.
In 1924, John Kelly Senior, grandfather of Prince Albert II, won his third gold medal at the Paris Olympics. To celebrate the centenary of this victory, World Rowing organised a special reception attended by the Prince of Monaco, members of the Kelly family, Thomas Bach, Chairman of the International Olympic Committee, and Jean-Christophe Rolland, President of World Rowing.
In addition to John Kelly Sr, the IOC chairman said organisers of the event also wanted to recognise other Olympians from the famous sporting family: John Kelly Jr, Princess Grace’s brother, who won a bronze medal in the singles rowing event at the 1956 Games, Prince Albert II, a five-time Winter Olympics participant (from 1988 to 2002) with the Monaco bobsleigh team, and Princess Charlene, who represented South Africa at the 2000 Sydney Olympics (her team placed fifth in the 4×100 metres combined relay).
On 1 August, the Prince of Monaco presented the Olympic medals to the winners of the pairs rowing event, Romania’s Andrei Cornea and Marian Enache, at the Vare-sur-Marne water stadium.
The princely family at the Paris Olympics
On the eve of the opening of the Olympic Games, Prince Albert II and Princess Charlene attended a gala dinner organised by the IOC and the French President in the Louvre Pyramid. The following day, just before the opening of the Games, the princely couple attended a reception for Heads of State and Government at the Elysee Palace, where they were received by President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron.
Finally, on 26 July, Prince Albert II, Princess Charlene, Crown Prince Jacques and Princess Gabriella watched the extraordinary opening ceremony, which took place right on the Seine River. For the first time in the history of the Summer Olympics, the ceremony took place outside the stadium.
Together with other representatives of the Monaco delegation, Prince Albert II also signed the Olympic Wall of Peace. Incidentally, it was in Monaco on 8 December 2014 that the 127th session of the IOC took place, at which an important addition was made to the Olympic Charter: ‘Any form of discrimination against a country or person on grounds of race, religion, politics, sex or other grounds is incompatible with membership of the Olympic Movement’.
History of sport in Monaco
The active development of sport in the Principality began in the late 19th century shortly before Prince Albert I came to power. The growing popularity of disciplines such as fencing, tennis and golf led to the development of facilities throughout the country. Outdoor enthusiasts were keen to stay at the Hôtel de Paris and enjoy both the Mediterranean sunshine and the competition at Monaco’s new sports facilities.
The first fencing ground appeared in the Principality in 1887 and the first Franco-Italian fencing tournament was held in 1911.
In 1881, on the esplanade by the Casino, a field was set up for tennis, a new fashionable sport borrowed from the English. Two years later, the Hôtel de Paris builds two dirt courts in its own gardens. In 1897, the new Lawn Tennis de Monte Carlo holds its first tournaments, and in 1921, three courts with small stands open on the roof of a spacious garage in Bosolei. After the move, the tennis club is named La Festa Country Club. In 1925, George Pierce Butler, a wealthy American and a great tennis enthusiast, persuades SBM to purchase several hectares of land in Roquebrune for the construction of new courts. Finally, in February 1928, the Monte-Carlo Country Club, which today hosts the legendary Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters, was inaugurated.
A third sport that was rapidly gaining popularity in the Principality in those years was golf. Camille Blanc, son of Casino de Monte-Carlo founder and SBM President François Blanc, recognised the magnificent location of Mont Agel in the village of Pey near Monaco and embarked on an ambitious project to build a golf course. A hundred workers are literally carrying the stones out on their backs to make way for a luxurious eighteen-hole course. As a result, the new course, designed by golfer Willie Park, Jr., opens in 1911.
Interestingly, in March 1914, just four months before the outbreak of the First World War, Prince Albert I of Monaco, a great lover of golf, invited the German Ambassador to France, Baron von Schön, to join him for a game. One can only guess what philosophical discussions these two important political figures might have had on the eve of a world catastrophe and why the Prince, a convinced pacifist, failed to dissuade the German representative from taking the fateful step….
To be fair, Prince Albert succeeded in another important endeavour, namely the organisation of the Women’s Olympics. In March 1921, the first competition was held in Monte Carlo with the participation of more than a hundred athletes from five countries. The competition programme included several disciplines of athletics, basketball and rhythmic gymnastics. In April 1922, at the second Women’s Games in Monaco, French athlete Alice Millau announced that the first Women’s Olympic Games would be held in August (unfortunately, Prince Albert did not live to see them). These days, women’s participation in the Olympics is not questioned. Moreover, the Paris Games were the first time that full gender equality was achieved in all 32 Olympic sports.
The current leadership of the Principality is not only concerned with high-performance sport. Much attention is also paid to amateur and children’s sport. Monaco has about 100 sports associations, most of which are supported by the Government. The Principality’s secondary schools are equipped with swimming pools and gyms, and pupils actively participate in football, rowing, athletics, gymnastics, fencing, rock climbing, etc., organised by the National Sports School Union (UNSS).
