Boxing: French federation president Dominique Nato receives the Légion d'honneur

Dominique Nato, president of the French Boxing Federation (FFBoxe) since March 2021, was made a knight of the Légion d'honneur, France's highest order of merit, on 4 November at the headquarters of the French Olympic Committee (CNOSF) in Paris. The award was presented by Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, CNOSF president and former sports minister, who praised a career in which "nothing was written in advance". The federation reported on the ceremony on 6 November.

Four French titles

Nato arrived in the Moselle region aged three, in the early 1960s, with parents who had left Calabria. He became French amateur heavyweight champion at 18, in 1976, a title he won four times. He earned around forty caps for France, finished fifth at the 1978 World Championships in Belgrade and took silver at the 1979 Mediterranean Games in Split. A hand injury kept him out of the 1980 Moscow Olympics. As a professional he won the French heavyweight belt in 1985, before a detached retina ended his career.

From the Insep to the presidency

Bernard Restout, then federation president, brought him into the national technical staff. He worked at the elite training centre at the Insep in Paris, coached the army's Bataillon de Joinville, then the national team after the 1992 Barcelona Games. As national technical director he set up training camps in Cuba. At the Sydney 2000 Olympics, Brahim Asloum won gold and Jérôme Thomas bronze. He also oversaw the arrival of women in competition, with Myriam Lamare and Sarah Ourahmoune. With a degree in sports law from Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, he then ran the CREPS of Nancy, a public sports training institute, for eight years.

"A school of equal opportunity"

In his speech, Nato said the honour carried a responsibility that went beyond him. He described boxing as a school of equal opportunity, where only will, work and discipline count. Serge Pautot, a former federation vice-president, called him the embodiment of meritocracy.

The federation he leads passed 60,000 members in 2023 and is preparing for the Los Angeles 2028 qualifiers run by World Boxing. Its next major domestic event is the Supers Ceintures card on 14 November in Argenteuil.