Pierre Carraz, the coach who led Christophe Lemaitre to the top of the European sprint, died at the age of 82, announced the French Athletics Federation (FFA), Saturday December 31, 2022, on his Twitter account :
“The FFA learned with deep sadness of the death of Pierre Carraz, who passed away at the age of 82. It salutes the memory of an immense trainer and educator, a figure of the AS Aix-les-Bains club, who notably took Christophe Lemaitre to the highest level. »
With Carraz, a former PE teacher who had been training him on a voluntary basis since 2005, Lemaitre broke the mythical threshold of 10 seconds over 100 meters in 2010 (9.98 seconds) – a first for a white sprinter.
Two Olympic medals for the duo
In the same year, he achieved an unprecedented treble by winning the 100 meters, 200 meters and 4 × 100 meters relay at the European Championships in Barcelona. The prize list of this improbable duo, separated by half a century of age difference, also includes two Olympic medals (3e 4 × 100 meters relay in 2012 and 200 meters in 2016) and two world medals (2e of the 4 × 100 meter relay and 3e of the 200 meters of the Worlds-2011).
If he had taken a step back, the former educator always kept a close eye on his most famous student, aged 32 and who would like to end his career at the 2024 Olympics in Paris.