Colette Fanara

Colette Fanara was born in Paris, and started gymnastics at a young age, though she dreamed of being in show business in her younger years. She attended L’École Normale Supérieure d’Éducation Physique (ENSEP) and began a long career as a physical education teacher in the mid-1940s, first in Paris at Lycée Victor-Hugo, which is where she met first her husband, Ferdinando Fanara (1923–2001), originally from Firenze (Florence), Italy. A member of the Association Sportive et Gymnique de Bagnolet located in the eastern suburbs of Paris, Colette Fanara was selected for the 1952 French gymnastics team to compete at the Helsinki Olympic Games where she finished seventh amongst her teammates with 66.31 points in the individual competition. The French team would finish 12th in a field of 16 countries.

Fanara moved to Nice with her husband in the 1960s, and continued her involvement in gymnastics there while teaching at Lycée Honoré d’Estienne d’Orves. She continued to reside there after her retirement, and was still active into her late 90s, performing daily physical exercises. One of her grandsons, Thomas Fanara, competed in Alpine skiing at three Olympic Winter Games for France from 2006–18. The Gymnase Cifarielo Fanara in Bagnolet is named after her brother-in-law, who was also a notable gymnastics figure in that area.