Martine Oppliger-Bouchonneau, the Franco-Swiss woman who ran "despite the federation"
December 31, 1981, São Paulo. The Portuguese runner Rosa Mota wins the famous Saint-Sylvestre race. Behind her, in second place, a runner whom the Brazilian daily A Gazeta Esportiva introduces as “uma suiça modesta,” a modest Swiss woman. Except she is French. Her name at the time is Martine Bouchonneau. The world of athletics will later know her as Martine Oppliger-Bouchonneau, a Swiss Olympian. And the magazine Spiridon has been following her since her first cross-country races.
A runner born in the cross-country races of the 70s
Born on October 19, 1957, in Cholet, in the Maine-et-Loire department, Martine Bouchonneau belongs to that generation of French women who discovered long-distance running just as it was finally starting to open up to them. In the mid-70s, women had no Olympic marathon, no 10,000m, and road races were only just beginning to accept them alongside men. This is precisely the fight that Spiridon was leading at the time.
Her name appeared very early in the magazine’s results pages, those dense columns where Noël Tamini and his correspondents recorded races from all over Europe. In November 1976, at the 9km race in Gujan-Mestras, in Gironde, which had nearly 7,000 starters, she was the first woman to finish (Spiridon No. 29, December 1976). A few weeks later, at the Aquitaine cross-country championships, she was listed as the top female finisher, ahead of a certain Colette Besson, the 1968 Olympic 400m champion in Mexico City (Spiridon No. 30, February-March 1977).
French Champion
The young runner quickly established herself among the best French middle-distance and cross-country runners. Spiridon archives track her alongside the great figures of the era, such as Joëlle De Brouwer. In November 1977, in Grenoble, she ran in the same cross-country race as Colette Besson, who was competing in the final race of her career (Spiridon No. 36). In the autumn of 1978, she won the women's race at a major cross-country event held in front of some 50,000 spectators (Spiridon No. 41, December 1978).
Titles followed. French indoor 1,500m champion in 1979, she became the French cross-country champion in 1980, then the French 3,000m champion in 1982. A versatile athlete, as comfortable on the track as in the mud of the fields.
São Paulo 1981: an "MLF runner"
The most amusing scene of her career is told by Noël Tamini himself, in his memoirs about the magazine's history. On December 31, 1981, at the Corrida de São Paulo, the Portuguese Rosa Mota took the win. There was surprise at the French Athletics Federation, and in the press, when they learned that a Frenchwoman, Martine Bouchonneau, had taken second place... under the flag of Switzerland, where someone had provided her with an invitation.
The final word goes to L'Équipe Magazine: Martine Bouchonneau was an "MLF" runner—meaning "malgré la fédération" (in spite of the federation). The phrase captures an entire era. In the early 80s, a French runner who wanted to compete in major international road races sometimes had to bypass official circuits. And it was towards Switzerland, the birthplace of Spiridon and "free running," that she found the door left open.
Rosa Mota, for her part, was still an unknown. A year later, in Athens, she would win the first European women's marathon championship, before becoming Olympic champion in Seoul in 1988.
Queen of Morat-Fribourg
Switzerland, in fact, became her second home for racing. She won Morat-Fribourg four times, in 1982, 1983, 1986, and 1987. A nice nod from history: this legendary race, where women had long had to slip into the peloton as "clandestines," crowned a Frenchwoman who had gone through the Spiridon school.
Martine Oppliger, Swiss Olympian
Having become Martine Oppliger, she went on to run for Switzerland, and it was in that jersey that she experienced the greatest moments of her career. Swiss 3,000m champion in 1986 and 1987, she placed 23rd in the 10,000m at the 1986 European Championships in Stuttgart. A year later, at the World Championships in Rome, she qualified for the 10,000m final and took 11th place in 32:07.49, her personal best.
In 1988, she ran the 5,000m in 15:25.84 in Berlin. Then came the ultimate achievement: at 30, she was selected for the Seoul Olympic Games. On September 26, 1988, she competed in the 10,000m heats, won by Norway’s Ingrid Kristiansen, and finished in 32:28.26, failing to reach the final. Three days earlier, at those same Games, Rosa Mota had become the Olympic marathon champion: the two women from São Paulo were reunited, seven years later, on the biggest stage in the world.
She didn't stop there. In 1989, she added two Swiss titles, in cross-country and the 25km road race, and ran a half-marathon in 1:12:16 in Monza.
The Spiridon tank top
A beautiful photo of Martine Bouchonneau remains, found in our archives, in which she is wearing the Spiridon tank top. It conveys in its own way what the magazine represented for an entire generation of runners: a space where they could run freely, in both France and Switzerland, long before official sports authorities decided to give them their rightful place. French by birth, Swiss by adoption, she also embodies the bridge between the two countries upon which Spiridon was built.
Like Chantal Langlacé, Cornelia Bürki, or Kathy Switzer, Martine Oppliger-Bouchonneau is one of those runners whom Spiridon watched grow, and who shifted the lines in their own way: by running wherever they were welcomed.
The spirit of Spiridon lives on: discover our Archives Sportswear pieces, inspired by the magazine's historical graphic design.
Sources: Noël Tamini, “Spiridon, histoire de la revue et du mouvement” (Spiridon archives); Spiridon magazine No. 29, 30, 36, and 41 (1976-1978); Wikipedia; World Athletics; official results of the 1988 Olympic Games.