Pierre Bonnes

1879 – 1955 · Paris, France

Pierre Bonnes was the senior French amateur weightlifter of the 1900s and one of Edmond Desbonnet's most accomplished pupils. He won repeated European amateur titles before the First World War and was the central figure in the Paris school of the period before Rigoulot's rise.

Origins

Bonnes was born in Paris in 1879. He took up amateur lifting in his teens and was admitted to Desbonnet's Paris establishment in his early twenties. He competed across the French and European amateur circuits through the 1900s.

The work

Bonnes won European amateur titles in the lightweight and middleweight classes through the late 1900s and into the early 1910s. He was, with Maurice Deriaz and others, a founding member of the French federation's first competitive cohort. He retired from international competition shortly before the First World War and continued as a coach and Desbonnet associate into the interwar period.

Notable feats

• European amateur weightlifting titles, multiple years c. 1907–1913.
• Two-hands continental clean and jerk in the region of 290 lb (132 kg) at lightweight bodyweight.
• One-hand snatch around 165 lb (75 kg).

Method

Bonnes trained under Desbonnet's school programme — progressive heavy work in the contest lifts, careful periodisation, attention to medical examination. His training is documented in La Culture Physique through the 1900s.

Legacy

Bonnes is the figure who connects the Desbonnet school of the 1900s to the Olympic-era French lifting that produced Rigoulot in the 1920s. He died in 1955.

Disputed and unresolved

Bonnes's exact dates are imprecise in surviving French records. The year-only figures used here follow Desbonnet's references and the IWF's pre-war competitor lists.