Jesús Diéguez

Born in Minas de Ríotinto in the south of Spain Jesús Diéguez moved to France at a young age where he took up the sport of athletics. When he was 21-years-old Diéguez finished in third place in the 10,000 metres at the 1923 Paris International Meeting. His talents were spotted by Barcelona Football Club, who signed him to their athletics team with the aim to qualify for the 1924 Paris Olympics. In March 1924 Diéguez took part in an exhibition race during the half-time of a football match between Barcelona and Terrassa where he unofficially equalled the Spanish record in the 3,000 metres.

Later the same month Diéguez ran in his first 10,000 metres race in Spain where he broke the national record. In April 1924 he went on to better his own Spanish record in a race in Zaragoza. A month later the Royal Spanish Athletic Federation named Diéguez in their provisional list of athletes for the Paris Olympics. He then won the 10,000 metres title at the Spanish Athletics Championship, again setting a national record, with the time standing until 1928.

While Diéguez was a 10,000 metres specialist, it is unclear if he ran in his favoured event at the 1924 Paris Olympics. The 1924 Official Report implies that there were 43 starters, but this number is felt to be wrong, with the number likely to be somewhere between 30 and 35 runners. Some Spanish sources list Diéguez as finishing the race, while other reports do not show him as competing. He was listed as a competitor in the 5,000 metres but he did not start the race. Diéguez did run in the 3,000 metres cross-country race, however, but did not finish. The top-three individual placements counted towards the overall standings in the team cross-country results, but only two Spanish athletes completed the course.

After the Olympics Diéguez opted to remain in France, living in Marseille where he married a French woman and opened a butcher’s shop in 1925. During the rest of the decade he won multiple distance races around the country, before becoming a French citizen in 1930. The same year he ran in the Ten Nations Cross Country Championship held in England, winning the bronze medal. In 1932 Diéguez won the Southeast French Cross Country Championships and the Cross Chazelle, the last known races that he competed in. He lived in France until his death in 1989 in the city of Aix-en-Provence.

Personal Best: 3000 – 9.13.0 (1924).