Abstract
Codified in England from the end of the 18th century, modern sports appeared in France at the end of the 19th century. Despite the spread and spectacularization of the practice in the first half of the twentieth century, it wasn't until the 1990s that French historians began to take up the subject. This delay is all the more surprising given that, with Pierre de Coubertin, France was one of the epicentres of the development of the Olympic Movement. At a time when France is preparing to host a new edition of the Olympic Games, this conference aims to retrace the historiographical trajectory of sport in France since the 1990s by identifying, with the help of sources and archives, the academic avenues and scientific objects through which the history of sport in France has gained legitimacy in the field of contemporary history.
