Marcel Desailly is a French former professional footballer, capable of playing as both centre-back or defensive midfielder. During a successful career at club level, lasting from 1986 to 2006, Desailly won several titles, including UEFA Champions League medals with both Marseille and AC Milan, and also played for Nantes and Chelsea, among other teams. At international level, he collected 116 caps between 1993 and 2004, scoring three goals, and was a member of the France international squads that won the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000.
France competed at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany. 227 competitors, 197 men and 30 women, took part in 132 events in 18 sports.
Marcel Aubut, is a Canadian lawyer, former president of the Canadian Olympic Committee and former president and Chief Executive Officer of the Quebec Nordiques of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was a board member of many businesses and organizations.
The Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (I.H.M.) is a Catholic religious institute of sisters, founded in 1845 by Fr. Louis Florent Gillet, CSsR, and Mother Theresa Maxis Duchemin, a co-founder of the Oblate Sister of Providence.
Marcel Goc is a German former professional ice hockey player.
Jean-Luc Brassard is a Canadian freestyle skier who won the gold medal at the 1994 Winter Olympics. Brassard has been credited with popularizing the wearing of bright knee pads to show off absorption and leg position for mogul skiers to best show judges how smoothly the athlete is taking the turns. He was born in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Quebec. In his other Olympic appearances, Brassard placed 7th in 1992, 4th in 1998 and 21st in 2002.
Marcel Langiller was a French footballer and is an Olympian. He played in a striker role, and was nicknamed "La Caille". He was part of France’s squad for the 1930 FIFA World Cup
Marcel Granollers Pujol is a Spanish professional tennis player. He reached a career-high doubles ranking of world No. 1 on 6 May 2024, becoming the second Spanish man to achieve the feat. He also has a career-high singles ranking of No. 19 achieved on 23 July 2012. Granollers has won 30 ATP titles, 4 in singles and 26 in doubles, including the 2012 ATP World Tour Finals. He has also reached five Major doubles finals at the French Open and the US Open in 2014, and at the 2019 US Open, the 2021 and 2023 Wimbledon Championships with Horacio Zeballos.
Shane William Archbold is a New Zealand former professional racing cyclist who competed as a professional from 2012 to 2023.
Events from the year 1979 in France.
The Wing or the Thigh, from the French L'aile ou la cuisse is a 1976 French comedy film directed by Claude Zidi, starring Louis de Funès and Coluche.
Marcel Renaud was a French racing cyclist who competed in the mid-1920s. He finished fourth in the 4000 m team pursuit event at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris.
Marcel Hirscher is an Austrian-Dutch former World Cup alpine ski racer. Hirscher made his World Cup debut in March 2007. He competed primarily in slalom and giant slalom, as well as combined and occasionally in super G. Winner of a record eight consecutive World Cup titles, Hirscher has also won 11 medals at the Alpine Skiing World Championships, seven of them gold, a silver medal in slalom at the 2014 Winter Olympics, and two gold medals in the combined and giant slalom at the 2018 Winter Olympics. Due to his record number of overall titles and many years of extreme dominance of both slalom and giant slalom, he is considered by many, including his former rivals Henrik Kristoffersen, Kjetil Jansrud and Alexis Pinturault, to be the best alpine skier in history. He won a total of 67 World Cup races, ranking second on the male all-time list.
Marcel Desprets was a French fencer. He won a gold medal in the team épée event at the 1948 Summer Olympics.
Stephan Krüger is a German rower.
Pavel Královec is a Czech football referee. He has been a full international for FIFA since 2005.
Marcel Van Minh Phuc Long Nguyen is a retired German artistic gymnast and three-time Olympian, having represented Germany at the 2008, 2012, and 2016 Olympic Games. He is the 2012 Olympic silver medalist in the all-around and on parallel bars as well as the 2011 and 2012 European Champion on the latter. He has been a soldier in the Bundeswehr since July 2007, beginning when he was training in the Bundeswehr Sports Development Group in Munich.
Atlantic Wall is a 1970 French-Italian war-comedy film written and directed by Marcel Camus and starring Bourvil and Peter McEnery. It was Bourvil's last film.
Theresa Maxis Duchemin, IHM was a Black Catholic missionary in Baltimore, Maryland. She was the first US-born African American to become a religious sister.
Angélique Duchemin was a French professional boxer known as "La princesse des rings.". She won all 14 of her professional fights, including three by knockout, and was World Boxing Federation featherweight champion.
