PARIS — Charles Coste, the world’s oldest residing Olympian and a biking champion, has died. He was 101.
The French presidency mentioned in an announcement on Tuesday that Coste died final Thursday.
Coste received the crew pursuit gold medal on the 1948 Olympic Video games in London on the famed Herne Hill velodrome. He returned to the highlight final 12 months because the second-to-last bearer of the Olympic flame for the 2024 Paris Video games.
Emmanuel Macron’s workplace mentioned Coste was “till his ultimate breath, the tireless messenger of a sure concept of sport.”
Coste moved the Paris crowd as he carried the Olympic torch, dressed all in white in a wheelchair within the rain. He lit the torches of French Olympic gold medalists Teddy Riner and Marie-José Pérec, who teamed to mild the cauldron throughout the rain-soaked opening ceremony.
“That second symbolized the fervour and spirit of transmission that drove him,” Riner mentioned. “Charles Coste embodied dedication, respect, and love for sport in all its types.”
Coste grew to become the oldest residing Olympic champion in January following the loss of life of Hungarian gymnast Ágnes Keleti.
He grew up close to the southern port metropolis of Toulon and started pedalling as a baby on a wood tricycle. Excelling on the monitor, he was topped French beginner pursuit champion in 1947 and received a bronze medal on the world championships the following 12 months.
He captured Olympic gold for France within the males’s crew pursuit within the first post-Second World Battle Video games alongside teammates Pierre Adam, Serge Blusson and Fernand Decanali, a quartet generally known as the “ABCD” crew. Their win by almost 39 seconds over Italy stays the best margin in Olympic historical past.
After the Olympics, Coste turned skilled with the Peugeot crew and achieved a prestigious victory on the 1949 Grand Prix des Nations, defeating Italy biking nice Fausto Coppi. He retired in 1959 after competing in two Excursions de France and 4 Giros, based on the Elysee palace. He launched into a brand new profession as a gross sales inspector for La Blanchisserie de Grenelle, the biggest laundry in Europe.
“The president of the republic and his spouse pay tribute to the reminiscence of this champion who left his mark on the historical past of his sport and of the nation,” Macron’s workplace mentioned. “They prolong their heartfelt condolences to his family members and to all biking fanatics.”