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Before the sixties, the French government did not show any interest in promoting sports in the French West Indies. In fact, sports were firstly promoted by a small native group. Who are they? Which qualities do they look for and find in sports? Which benefits—whether social or symbolic—do they draw from them? This paper presents the relation between the belief in the virtues of sport and the search for identity. Thus, our goal is to examine the importance of the "sporting spirit" in the assimilation process, in relation to the metropolis. The desire to be recognized, the wish to prove an equality, the need to belong to a community—even if it is far away, from a geographic and cultural point of view—are at the heart of a quest, evident in first part of the XX century in Guadeloupe and Martinique. This work is mainly based on the analysis of sports magazines and newspapers articles, as well as biographic approach, in order to outline the sportsman's profile. The ambition in drawing some common characteristics of sport development in the French West Indies, is also to allow a comparative study with other Caribbean countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]