There is no getting away from it. In parallel with the sporting spectacle that will be on show at the Olympic Games and Paralympics in Paris this summer, sports business will also be hard at work.
The global event already attracts the biggest brands in world capitalism who see it as a sponsorship opportunity, using the image of sportspeople to publicise their products and reach the greatest possible number of consumers. Brands such as Carrefour, Danone, Allianz, Omega, Procter & Gamble, Coca Cola and Toyota – who have all forked out to be official partners of the Games – have already chosen their sporting champions. But in this cattle market where all the big corporations seek to forge a positive image with as many people as they can, the business with the lion's share of sporting talent is undoubtedly French group LVMH.
Enlargement : Illustration 1
Yet historically this giant of the luxury goods world – the initials stand for Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy – has been more interested in the bourgeois sports favoured by the elites – sailing, tennis, Formula 1 motor racing – than by large popular sporting gatherings. But in a quest for better press coverage, especially after controversies over the extreme wealth of its boss Bernard Arnault, the group has in recent months sought to acquire a more popular image.
So in July 2023, and at a cost of 150 million euros, LVMH became a “premium partner” sponsor of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games organising committee (COJOP). This committee has, rather awkwardly, claimed from the start that it wants to make the Paris Games a “popular” , “accessible” and “inclusive” celebration of sport.
But a leopard can't change its spots. The luxury goods giant will bring to these Games what it knows and does best. First of all a dose of opulence: wines, champagne and cognacs from Moët Hennessy will make up the VIP cocktails. Its jewellers Chaumet are designing the gold, silver and bronze medals. And its upmarket clothing brand Berluti will dress the French athletes for the opening and closing ceremonies.
After that comes a focus on performance: the pompous-sounding messages from its communications department - in which the luxury group portrays itself as a partner of French “excellence”, the “architect of all victories” - aren't all simply bluster. Proof of this lies in the list of athletes that the group is going to sponsor. While it is true that the highest capitalised company listed on the CAC40 – the French stock exchange – has not forged partnerships with many, those it has chosen are among the most high-profile.
The latest on board is rugby player Antoine Dupont, a superstar in the sport, who is going to feature in the French rugby sevens team at the Games, in which he will be the main attraction. No sooner had Dupont confirmed all the high hopes placed in him when his team won a pre-Olympic sevens tournament, then LVMH announced it had signed him up to publicise Louis Vuitton.
Even better, from the group's point of view, at the end of July 2023 - just a few days after officially becoming a COJOP partner - LVMH announced that it had snapped up the athlete who could get the most medals across all events: the French swimmer Léon Marchand, who is seen as the successor to the American legend Michael Phelps. Already a world champion in five events, depending on the schedule he wants to put himself through Léon Marchand could target up to six medals including relays, most of them gold. He is already adorning the pages of fashion magazines with Louis Vuitton bags on his back.
Another great hope for an Olympic title is in fencing – one of the most fruitful sports for France in terms of medals – in the shape of Enzo Lefort. The world foil fencing champion in 2022 and reigning Olympic team champion, he also joined as a Louis Vuitton brand ambassador in October 2023.
Meanwhile when it comes to women athletes, Dior – part of LVMH – has signed up one of the most widely anticipated French competitors at the Games, the rising gymnastics star Mélanie de Jesus dos Santos, who has held multiple European titles and who is currently training with the sport's legendary figure Simone Biles.
For the Paralympics, LVMH is pursuing the same logic. Dior is counting on Marie Patouillet, a double world champion in the paracycling world championship which have just ended in Brazil, and on Pauline Déroulède, a triple French champion in wheelchair tennis. She also happened to have been on the election list for the dissident former rightwing Les Républicains candidate Pierre Charon, an old ally of former president Nicolas Sarkozy, at last year's Senate elections.
Finally, the group's Louis Vuitton brand has signed up track athlete Timothée Adolphe, a silver medallist at the 100 metres at the last Paralympics in Tokyo and a bronze medallist in the 100 metres and 400 metres at the last world championships. He is seen as another potential medal winner.
Unknowns not invited
In short, those seeking to achieve a personal best at the Olympic Games or the Paralympics in Paris but who have no great chance of medalling – in other words, the great majority of competitors – have not been invited to LVMH's table.
In Le Parisien newspaper – owned by the LVMH – the group defended itself against the charge that it was choosing athletes based on performance. “We wanted a team based around seven athletes, on the basis of personal stories and not on their social network followers or their medal chances,” it stated.
Unfortunately, this explanation is hard to accept. And especially when one considers the profiles of the other athletes who have been signed up by LVMH. At the end of February this year Victor Wembanyama, another likely superstar at the Paris Games and the most followed basketball player on social media after the American Lebron James, announced a partnership deal with Louis Vuitton.
And what about the best-known French sportsperson in the world, footballer Kylian Mbappé, who has been a LVMH brand ambassador for many years for Dior and for Hublot watches? If he were able to take part in the Olympic Games with the French football team, as he would like, then the luxury goods group's joy would be complete.
But the sporting press in France seems very pessimistic about the likelihood of his involvement in the Paris Games because his future club – likely to be Real Madrid after he leaves French side PSG – would probably be disinclined to release him for that competition. This would doubtless be to the dismay of LVMH executives
Given their pedigree, there is no doubt that the LVMH athletes will be in the vanguard of French success at this year's Olympic Games and Paralympics; they alone could bring in between 10 and 15 medals between them. So wherever there is gold glittering this summer, the luxury goods group will never be far away.
It is about the survival of the fittest. Meanwhile all the other athletes – those who live modestly and who don't attract lucrative sponsorship deals - will become invisible away from the media scrum.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
- The original French version of this op-ed can be found here.
English version by Michael Streeter