🎩0️⃣5️⃣5️⃣ Ambassador Samuel Ducroquet
Photo: Samuel Ducroquet
Meet Samuel Ducroquet, the Ambassador for Sport at the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs who is helping to forge closer relations between France and the United States through the sports diplomacy prism.
Editors Note: All quotes have been translated from French
Samuel’s Story
Ducroquet was born and raised in Dunkerque, in the north of France. His early years were marked by a strong foundation in political science and European affairs. Although he grew up playing sports with a special connection to rugby, “I have always played sports,” he said. “I have always had a personal interest, but let's just say I never played even close to professionally.” Ducroquet focused on his studies in Political Science at Sciences Po in Lille and at the London School of Economics then began a professional career working within the French diplomatic corps.
The pivotal moment in Ducroquet's career came in 2016 and coincided with his desire to do something a little different with his career. “After six years of European politics, I decided to broaden the spectrum a little and go to another geographical zone, the Middle East, to do bilateral work, not just multilateral, and take on different subjects to broaden my skills,” he explained. He took a position with the French Foreign Ministry in Doha as political advisor. As sports correspondent of the Embassy, he was also in support of French delegations participating in various sporting events and worked extensively on issues related to the preparation for the FIFA World Cup 2022.
“In Doha, there are many things that are closely linked to both politics and sports, given the Qatar’s governmental strategy in soft power through sports.”
That experience cumulated with the Fall 2016 presentation of the Paris 2024 project to the General Assembly of the National Olympic Committee Association. “Working with the Paris 2024 bidding team was an unforgettable experience and I decided to continue working in the sector of international sports relations,” he described of the experience.
“That's why I went to Japan to work as Olympic attaché and sports advisor of the French Embassy in Tokyo. It was really Qatar that was the tipping point. And then, in Japan, I worked 100% on sports diplomacy, in the framework of the 2019 Rugby World Cup and the Games. Two events that France was also meant to host in 2023 and 2024.”
Ducroquet's experiences in Japan and Qatar solidified his commitment to sport diplomacy. Upon his return to France, he leveraged his international and sports diplomacy expertise. “The aim, after two positions abroad, was to be able to use this niche of sport and international relations in the context of the Rugby World Cup in France in 2023 and the Olympic Games 2024,” he said. “That's how I built my expertise in the field of Sports a little bit and after a year, within the Paris 2024 organizing committee, I was appointed Ambassador for Sport.” He returned to the Ministry as Ambassador for Sport in February 2023.
The Sport Diplomacy Connection
Photo: Samuel Ducroquet.
Ducroquet regularly engages in formal sports diplomacy as France’s Ambassador for Sport. His advocacy for integrating sport diplomacy into France’s foreign policy framework underscored a belief in the transformative power of sports to foster international goodwill and cooperation. As he explained,
“Our job is to ensure that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs supports the sports ecosystem in the development of its international relations, whether with specialized sports science research institutes, high performance institutes, whether the rapprochement between clubs which try to form partnerships to develop their practices or enrich their experiences. This is the case, for example, when the French Football Federation works on a partnership with Iraq on the development of women soccer, or when France funds NGOs or local government for the development of urban sports infrastructures in Western Africa.”
Durcoquet’s day to day revolved around connecting nations through sports. “This is the second axis [of French sports diplomacy,” he noted, “ensuring that we can contribute to the international development of the French sports movement, while using sport as a tool for bringing people together, and in particular working on the issues of sustainable development and sport.”
Photo: Samuel Ducroquet.
Ducroquet highlighted the establishment of the French Development Agency's (AFD) "Sport and Development" strategy, which aimed to utilize sports as a vehicle for addressing sustainable development goals, economic development, and social issues such as inequality and domestic violence. He acknowledged that while sports might not have been a panacea for all societal challenges, they played a significant role in promoting development and were recognized by the United Nations for their contribution to global progress.
Furthermore, Ducroquet pointed out that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its international teams provided a vital boost to France's global influence and attractiveness through sports. This included supporting French companies in securing international markets, particularly in countries hosting future major sporting events, and creating sports clubs in various nations to foster closer ties between French businesses, and local authorities, with the contribution of the embassies. The ministry also worked to enhance France's presence in international sports institutions and promote sports tourism, thereby leveraging sports to bolster France's global standing.
But Ducroquet has also engaged in informal sports diplomacy through rugby when he studied abroad for one year in the United States at San Jose State. “I am not from a rugby town but when I started my studies I began to play in the cities I was in,” he recalled. “In the United States, when I was in San Jose, I played rugby there.” It was an adventure he remembered as an enjoyable experience and I remember that the coach was rather happy to have a Frenchman in his squad.
“I loved that year. It was a great year. [It was a] super rich year of exchange in a country that I didn't know at all, in a really great region that I also knew little about before going.”
For Ducroquet, being an official sports diplomat, "it's my daily life.” Part of the job as an Ambassador for Sports is representation on behalf of the French government. As a thematic ambassador for sports at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ducroquet believed that sport diplomacy was a profession that demanded a deep understanding of both international relations and the specific dynamics of sports. “It requires knowledge, skills, expertise on how to use something like sports as a tool for international cooperation, dialogue, rapprochement, and analysis,” he said.
Ducroquet’s unique position allowed him to walk on two legs—diplomacy and sports. This dual expertise enabled him to effectively act as a professional sports diplomat. “We have many ambassadors in numerous countries around the world. As a formal diplomat I am quite proud to be the Ambassador to the world of Sport”
Mapping the Connection
From Dunkerque, France to San Jose, California
Sources
[F] Amb. Samuel Ducroquet, Interview with the Author, June 2024.
[E] French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, “An ambassador serving French sports diplomacy,” and “Sports Diplomacy.” Accessed November 26, 2024.
[E] #AtlanticDebrief, “What do the 2024 Paris Olympic Games mean for France? A debrief from Amb. Ducroquet,” The Atlantic Council, August 7, 2024.
How to Cite This Entry
Richmond, Kylie. “Voices: Ambassador Samuel Ducroquet ,” FranceAndUS, https://www.franceussports.com/voices/055-ambassador-samuel-ducroquet (date consulted).