Developing athletic “atomic armaments”: The role of sports medicine in Cold War France, 1958–1992

• The Cold War desire to improve elite athletic performance prodded the maturation of French sports medicine.
• This article examines efforts to improve results in football and basketball, sports not dominated by the US, USSR, or GFR.
• Diet and nutrition, preventative medicine, medical supervision, and anti-doping education were focal points.
• The trickle-down impact was that sports medicine became an affair of state.

As the national and ideological battles of the Cold War moved into the sports arena, many states sanctioned sports development programs to create winning athletes to represent the nation at elite international competitions. For France, mired in a variety of crises during the 1960s, this meant producing athletes who could restore national prestige and honour via sports victories. Such athletic “atomic armaments” could garner soft power through athletic success and restore the image and glory of the nation. Part of the prescription for improving performances was to encourage the development of sports medicine. At the same time, medical supervision and knowledge were applied to protect the health of the nation's premier sportsmen and women, particularly youth athletes who represented the upcoming generation of “winners.” While originally designed for the elite athlete, sports medicine trickled down into amateur and sports-leisure ranks, thus becoming an affair of state.