It all began with a mail from someone who is considered to be a pionneer for french benchpress; Joseph Ponnier. He answered to one of my e-mails sent to tell him about the latest Club150kg project update,and most of all the new project for women benchpress called Club60kg. Now that telephone communications gradually turn "free" (so to speak), we dropped mails for the handset... And what an encounter it was !

He told me about a friend of his who owns personal archives including all meet results from the now gone FFF federation (French Powerlifting Federation), from 1987 to 2000. 13 years of sports results quietly sleeping inside three heavy cardboard folders. He told me he would get in touch with his friend the day after and let me know about it. It was getting late, I went to bed, and slumbered in a maze of powerlifting dreams.

The telephone rang again the morning after: Joseph Ponnier, proud to show he always keeps his word, told me being at his friend's and having told him about my project to browse through his archives and thus lengthen the list of the best french benchers of all times. Of course, these archives are a genuine treasure, and the fear of losing them or seeing them degraded was a legitimate one from the part of their owner. Hence have I suggested to come and take them myself personally. Appointment was taken for the day after, 4 o'clock in the afternoon, having a bit more than two and a half hours driving to get there.

So, 5 hours in a car to go and get a treasure of archives: that little expedition needed some preparing: GPS, Lohengrin complete opera set (useful to cool off when stuck in Paris traffic jams), USB card with Club150kg website inside, and a mobile phone (just in case). Engine ignitino, and off we go...

I met a charming and welcoming man. He lives in a nice and plain house. Powerlifting cups and medals set just about everywhere, some very beautiful, but none displayed in a gaudy fashion. A straightforward and powerful handshake. Just another example of the extent to which powerflifting is not a world submitted to any caste conventions or behaviour norms. Mutual respect, simply, from youths for those to whom they owe everything, and from the pionneers for those taking over.

I feel entrusted with a mission. First, turn these paper archives "digital" so that they may never disappear. They hold the memory of sweat. Top level athletes have prepared their performances for years, and they are the forerunners of our sport. Should their records disappear, this would be a shame for us all. If one rings the french tennis federation to ask them who whas the Aquitaine champion in 1983 one will certainly get an answer. Many federations have their own archives. Why should the chaotic history of french powerlifting not be entitled to have archives and people to look after them ? The work performed by Pascal Girard in this domain is exemplary.

Then, I will have to use these data to find athletes of the Club150kg or Club60kg (women) class who have not yet entered the list, and build up the hall of fame of our sport. This would give a ranking of the best french benchpress athletes of all times, so that pionneers, even if they have left this world, shall not vanish from our memory. I have already met dozens of marvelous people who deserve neither dust nor oblivion.