Loïs Boisson, the role model that women's sport in France was missing?

In just a few matches, she has climbed nearly 300 places in the world ranking of women's tennis players (rising from ^361st to ^65th ), and gained impressive visibility. A semi-finalist at Roland Garros, in her first participation in a Grand Slam tournament, could 22-year-old Frenchwoman Loïs Boisson become the female role model that so many people committed to parity in sport have been waiting for?

When it comes to the notoriety of female champions, as with all indicators relating to women's sport (and more broadly to physical activity), we are far, very far from the mark. According to a survey conducted in France in January 2025 (after the 2024 Paris Olympics), the three most well-known athletes, cited by far at the top of the 26 names proposed by the pollsters, are Laure Manaudou, Marie-José Pérec, and Amélie Mauresmo. Three long-time retirees.

In a recent column on France Inter, dedicated to Loïs Boisson, Anne-Cécile Mailfert, the president of the Fondation des femmes , regrets that women's sport is invisible most of the time and "only reaches the media spotlight during exceptional performances, before falling back into oblivion" .

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