Laura Flessel-Colovic (born 6 November 1971) is a French politician and épée fencer who served as Minister of Sports from 2017 to 2018. Born in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, she has won the most Olympic medals of any French sportswoman, with five.[3] Before 2007, she was a member of the Levallois Sporting Club Escrime, and now works with Lagardère Paris Racing.[4] She is married and has one daughter.
She was appointed Minister of Sports in the Philippe Government on 17 May 2017[6] and resigned on 4 September 2018.[7]
Sporting career
Fencer
Laura Flessel began fencing at age six and quickly became a very talented fencer. She progressed quickly and became champion of Guadeloupe. Then, she gained solid experience on the Caribbean, Central American and Pan American circuits, winning in 1990 the Pan American Championships in foil and épée. The same year, she joined the metropolis, to train with the Racing Club de France. She also trains within the INSEP, which allows her to face the best French fencers.
The 2008 Summer Olympics, her fourth Olympic Games, marks a turning point as it is the first Olympics where she does not get a medal after being eliminated by Li Na (15-9) in the quarter-finals. The year 2009 sees again Laura Flessel at the top but still without success with a third place at the European Championships in Plovdiv[12] and a failure at the World Championships in Antalya where she lost f in quarter final against Lyubov Shutova after a close match that ends in sudden death on the score of 7 to 8.
Laura Flessel was banned for three months in 2002 after failing a doping test.[16] She tested positive for the banned substance coramine glucose, blaming the French team doctors for giving her a drug that is available over the counter in France.[17]
Sports management
In 2012, she took over the management of Nathalie Moellhausen, a native of Italy and competing under the colors of Brazil, forming a group also composed of two fencing masters, Daniel Levavasseur and Michel Sicard, the latter having both coached Flessel.[18]
Sports consultant and other activities
Media and television
In 2008, Laura Flessel was a columnist for the daily newspaper Aujourd'hui Sport.
She is ambassador of the AMREF Flying Doctors' Stand Up for African Mothers campaign, the godmother of Handicap International, and Ambassador of Plan France.[21] His long-term project is to bring fencing to disadvantaged cities and places. She is also a goodwill ambassador for UNESCO where she promotes tolerance in sports.[22]
She founded the association Ti'Colibri which aims to promote fencing. Thanks to its action, it has been able to offer means and equipment to clubs with few resources.[23]
Political career
During the two-rounds of the French presidential election of 2017, she was one of the sixty active or retired sportsmen who signed a call to vote for Emmanuel Macron on 7 May 2017 in the second round of the presidential election "so that sport remains an area of freedom, equality and fraternity."[24]
On 17 May 2017, she was appointed Minister of Sports in the First Philippe government, under the presidency of Emmanuel Macron, a position she held in the Second Philippe government, which was formed on 21 June 2017.[25]