Charles Coste, world’s oldest living Olympian and cycling champion, dies at 101

By Canadian Press on November 4, 2025.

PARIS (AP) — Charles Coste, the world’s oldest living Olympian and a cycling champion, has died. He was 101.

The French presidency said in a statement on Tuesday that Coste died last Thursday.

Coste won the team pursuit gold medal at the 1948 Olympic Games in London at the famed Herne Hill velodrome. He returned to the spotlight last year as the second-to-last bearer of the Olympic flame for the 2024 Paris Games.

Emmanuel Macron’s office said Coste was “until his final breath, the tireless messenger of a certain idea of sport.”

Coste moved the Paris crowd as he carried the Olympic torch, dressed all in white in a wheelchair in the rain. He lit the torches of French Olympic gold medalists Teddy Riner and Marie-José Pérec, who teamed to light the cauldron during the rain-soaked opening ceremony.

“That moment symbolized the passion and spirit of transmission that drove him,” Riner said. “Charles Coste embodied dedication, respect, and love for sport in all its forms.”

Coste became the oldest living Olympic champion in January following the death of Hungarian gymnast Ágnes Keleti.

He grew up near the southern port city of Toulon and began pedalling as a child on a wooden tricycle. Excelling on the track, he was crowned French amateur pursuit champion in 1947 and won a bronze medal at the world championships the next year.

He captured Olympic gold for France in the men’s team pursuit in the first post-Second World War Games alongside teammates Pierre Adam, Serge Blusson and Fernand Decanali, a quartet known as the “ABCD” team. Their win by nearly 39 seconds over Italy remains the greatest margin in Olympic history.

After the Olympics, Coste turned professional with the Peugeot team and achieved a prestigious victory at the 1949 Grand Prix des Nations, defeating Italy cycling great Fausto Coppi. He retired in 1959 after competing in two Tours de France and four Giros, according to the Elysee palace. He embarked on a new career as a sales inspector for La Blanchisserie de Grenelle, the largest laundry in Europe.

“The president of the republic and his wife pay tribute to the memory of this champion who left his mark on the history of his sport and of the nation,” Macron’s office said. “They extend their heartfelt condolences to his loved ones and to all cycling enthusiasts.”

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AP Olympics: https://www.ap.org/news-highlights/category/olympics/

Samuel Petrequin, The Associated Press

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