Jacques Accambray (born 23 May 1950) is a French former

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

athlete. A talented age group thrower, Accambray set a world junior record in men's

hammer throw The hammer throw is one of the four throwing events in regular track and field competitions, along with the discus throw, shot put and javelin. The "hammer" used in this sport is not like any of the tools also called by that name. It consis ...

in 1969. During the early 1970s he studied at

Kent State University Kent State University (KSU) is a public research university in Kent, Ohio. The university also includes seven regional campuses in Northeast Ohio and additional facilities in the region and internationally. Regional campuses are located in As ...

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, winning

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

titles in both hammer throw and

weight throw Two sports have events that fall under the name of weight throw one being the track and field event and the other being the Scottish highland games events. The track and field event is most popular in the United States as an indoor equivalent t ...

. He represented France as a hammer thrower at the

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...

and

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phila ...

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...

, as well as at the

European Championships The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...

of 1969, 1971, 1974 and 1978. From 1985 to 1996 he was President of the French American Football Federation.

Biography

Accambray was born in Divion,

Pas-de-Calais Pas-de-Calais (, " strait of Calais"; pcd, Pas-Calés; also nl, Nauw van Kales) is a department in northern France named after the French designation of the Strait of Dover, which it borders. It has the most communes of all the departments ...

on 23 May 1950. He developed rapidly as a hammer thrower; in June 1968 he threw 64.40 m in a dual meet against West Germany, setting a new French

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record. On 31 May 1969 he threw 68.24 m in Sochaux, breaking the world junior mark; the throw placed him 21st in the world that year among throwers of any age. Accambray was selected to represent France at the

1969 European Athletics Championships The 9th European Athletics Championships were held from 16–21 September 1969 in the Karaiskaki Stadium of Athens, the capital of Greece. New at these championships were the women's 1500 metres and the women's 4×400 metres relay event. Moreover, ...

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

, but only managed 60.76 m and was eliminated in the qualification round. He won his first French national championship title that summer, repeating as champion the following year. For the next four years Accambray studied at

in Ohio, continuing his throwing career there. Accambray and his Kent State teammate

Al Schoterman Al Schoterman (born September 11, 1950) is an American Sport of athletics, athlete. He competed in the Athletics at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Men's hammer throw, men's hammer throw at the 1972 Summer Olympics. In 1983 Schoterman won the Weig ...

were the top collegiate heavy throwers of the early 1970s; in 1971, Accambray placed second to Schoterman in the 35 lb

at the Division I indoor championships and won the hammer throw, with Schoterman taking second, in the outdoor meet; Accambray's winning mark of 227 ft 10 in (69.44 m) was a new collegiate and meeting record. Accambray and Schoterman reversed roles in 1972, with Accambray winning the NCAA weight throw title and Schoterman the hammer throw; again, they claimed the top two in both events. Accambray's winning mark in the weight throw, 71 ft 3 in (21.71 m), broke Schoterman's meeting record from the previous year. At the

1972 Summer Olympics The 1972 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad () and commonly known as Munich 1972 (german: München 1972), was an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from 26 August to 11 September 1972. ...

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Accambray cleared the qualification with a throw of 68.00 m, but in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

he only managed 65.06 m and placed 19th. With Schoterman no longer in college, Accambray regained the NCAA hammer title in 1973. Accambray won his second collegiate indoor weight throw title in 1974, throwing 71 ft in (21.91 m); the mark was a new collegiate and meeting record, and remained Kent State record until Matthias Tayala broke it in 2014. Accambray also won the 1974 United States weight throw championship, defeating four-time defending champion

George Frenn George Michael Frenn (December 26, 1941 – June 26, 2006) was an American hammer thrower, weight thrower and powerlifter. Frenn set world bests in the outdoor and indoor weight throws, won two medals in the Pan American Games and competed in th ...

. In his final year at Kent State, he joined the university's

American football team A football team is a group of players selected to play together in the various team sports known as football. Such teams could be selected to play in a match against an opposing team, to represent a football club, group, state or nation, an all- ...

as a

defensive tackle A defensive tackle (DT) is a position in American football that will typically line up on the line of scrimmage, opposite one of the offensive guards, however he may also line up opposite one of the tackles. Defensive tackles are typically the la ...

; after his graduation in 1974 he was signed by the

Montreal Alouettes The Montreal Alouettes (Canadian French, French: Les Alouettes de Montréal) are a professional Canadian football team based in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1946, the team has folded and been revived twice. The Alouettes compete in the Canadian F ...

of the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

, but although he visited the Alouettes' training and selection camp he never played a game for them. Accambray became French hammer throw champion for a third time in 1975, throwing a meeting record 69.76 m. He won bronze with 65.16 m at the

1975 Mediterranean Games The 1975 Mediterranean Games, officially known as the VII Mediterranean Games, and commonly known as Algiers 1975, were the 7th Mediterranean Games. The Games were held in Algiers, Algeria, from 23 August to 6 September 1975, where 2,444 athletes ...

. Accambray achieved his best results in 1976, winning his fourth French title with 69.86 m; at the

1976 Summer Olympics Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phi ...

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he threw 70.44 m for ninth place, his best placing in a major international meet. He set his final personal best (and French record), 73.46 m, in Antony on 23 June 1976. At the 1978 European Championships in

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Accambray was again eliminated in the qualification round. He won his fifth and final French national title in 1979. From 1985 to 1996 he was President of the Fédération Française de Football Américain (FFFA), France's national federation of

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

Personal life

Accambray's wife, Isabelle Accambray (née Reynaud), was French national champion in women's

discus throw The discus throw (), also known as disc throw, is a track and field event in which an athlete throws a heavy disk (mathematics), disc—called a discus—in an attempt to mark a farther distance than their competitors. It is an classical antiqui ...

from 1980 to 1982. Handball international William Accambray is their son.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Accambray, Jacques 1950 births Living people French male hammer throwers Male weight throwers Olympic athletes for France Sportspeople from Pas-de-Calais Athletes from Hauts-de-France Athletes (track and field) at the 1972 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1976 Summer Olympics Mediterranean Games bronze medalists for France Athletes (track and field) at the 1975 Mediterranean Games Kent State Golden Flashes men's track and field athletes French players of American football Kent State Golden Flashes football players American football defensive tackles American football executives Mediterranean Games medalists in athletics French Athletics Championships winners NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships winners