Melchior, Marquis de Polignac was descended from one of the oldest families in France. He was the grandson of Madame Pommery, who invented dry champagne when she unsweetened dessert wine so that she could drink it with her meals. When his uncle died in 1907, de Polignac became head of the firm. He became very wealthy and used his wealth to support his city of Reims, especially building sporting facilities that were made available to the people of the city. De Polignac was fond of many sports, but was best known as a polo player. He financed the building of Reims Athletic College, whose buildings were destroyed in World War I, but after the war, he paid for the re-building. During the War he served in the infantry and then the aviation corps, before being posted to the United States for work at the French Embassy in Washington.
In 1921 he became one of the original members of the IOC Executive Board, remaining on the Board until he resigned from the IOC shortly before his death in 1950. He worked with the Organizing Committee of the 1924 Olympics and in 1925, ran for IOC President, but received only one vote, as Count Henri de Baillet Latour was elected the third IOC President. After World War II, his war-time activities were called into question by IOC Member Lord Burghley, and the British Ambassador in Paris reported to the Foreign Office in London that de Polignac was one of the worst collaborators in France and that no decent Frenchman will meet him or his wife. Ironically, de Polignac’s son was an active member of the French Resistance movement during World War II.
France