Dr. Médéric Chapitaux

Médéric Chapitaux, born on 27 April 1974, is a sociologist, former gendarme and specialist in combat sports. After fifteen years of service in the National Gendarmerie, he joined the Ministry of Sport as a senior civil servant specialising in combat sports. In particular, he served as a technical sports adviser to the French Federation of Contact Sports and Associated Disciplines until 2014.

Holder of several university degrees, in 2022 he obtained a PhD in sociology from the University of Toulouse Jean Jaurès, with a thesis entitled ‘Those deviances that sport does not like to see: public policies and professional educators in combat sports in the face of permissiveness or even religious radicalism”. He also holds a degree in sports law and is a visiting scholar at the National Institute for Higher Studies in Security and Justice.

His areas of expertise include public policy on sport, the prevention of radicalisation and separatism, secularism and combat sports. His work focuses on the design of public policies to prevent radicalisation in sport and on how coaches deal with religious interference within clubs. A member of the Council of Elders on Secularism, he is the author of *When Islamism Penetrates Sport* (PUF, 2023) and regularly contributes to the public debate on these issues.

In 2014, he co-founded and ran the company Challenges Academia until 2024, before joining the consultancy firm Klenis. Alongside his work as a trained engineer, he is an associate researcher at the CRESCO laboratory in Toulouse.