Louis Ségura

Louis Ségura was the most successful French gymnast before World War I. Born as a Spanish national to a day labourer, who was a member of the Spanish community in Algeria. He competed in the individual artistic gymnastics’ events in London in 1908 and in Stockholm in 1912 winning bronze and silver, respectively. He was also selected for the 1920 Games in Antwerpen (Antwerp) but did not start. At the World Championships, he also medalled several times, winning silver with the team and bronze at the parallel bars in Praha (Prague) in 1907, gold with the team in Torino in 1909 and silver with the team in Paris in 1913.

Ségura started his sporting career with the club “La Bel-Abbésienne” in his hometown of Sidi Bel Abbès and later switched to “L’Oranaise” in Oran. As early as in 1902 at the age of 13, Ségura won a first prize in gymnastics at the La Mascaréenne society’s festival in Mascara (now Muaskar).

He married Irène Éléonore Gapin in 1914, and later re-married Maria-Mercédès Serdan in 1930. Ségura worked as a gymnastics instructor, but also as an auxiliary mail carrier and an employee of the Western Algerian Railways.