A memorable encounter with a 100-year-old legend
The December 2024 edition of Rouleur magazine, which is on the theme of age and experience features an article that I wrote about Charles Coste.
His name may not necessarily be on everyone's lips, but he has become very well known over the last year in the run-up to, and during the Paris Olympics.
100-year old Charles Coste is the oldest surviving French Olympic Champion. He was born during the year of the previous Paris Olympics, and the inaugural Winter Olympics, held in Chamonix, back in 1924. Of course he was too young to know much about that, but in his teens he proved to be a strong promising track and road cyclist, and he qualified to compete for France in the 1948 London Olympics.
With his three team-mates, he competed in the 4,000m team pursuit at Herne Hill and won gold ahead of the Italy and the British team that included Tommy Godwin.
Charles raced at the same period as prominent cyclists like as Fausto Coppi, Jacques Anquetil, and Raphael Geminiani, and in one particular race, the Grand Prix des Nations in 1949, he beat Il Campionissimo [the nickname for the Great Fausto Coppi].
Charles retired from racing in 1960 and joined civvy street, working as an Area Commercial Manager for an industrial dry cleaning company. He lived completely out of the spotlight with no one having any idea of his previous life.Although Charles followed what was happening in professional cycle racing, and kept fit, he didn't do much in the way of cycling. Even his son and grand children were not interested in taking up the sport, and found family bike rides in the hilly Parisian suburbs too challenging.
But when the man tasked with delivering the Paris Olympics, Tony Estanguet, learned of Charles Coste’s achievements he was determined to raise the profile of the elderly Olympian. Starting with the Legion d'Honneur, Charles belatedly awarded the accolade in 2022. This began being bestowed on Olympians from the 1950s so Coste missed out. He also took part in the Olympic torch relay as it went through the Parisian suburb of Colombes, close to his home. Then at the opening ceremony he took the honourable role of being the penultimate torchbearer at the opening ceremony, handing the torch to Marie-Jose Perec and Teddy Rinner as these two French. Olympic legends jointly lit the cauldron in the Tuileries Gardens.
It's fair to say Charles has received a lot of attention from the world's media. On the day I visited Charles with James, the Rouleur photographer at Charles’s flat in the Parisian suburb of Bois-Colombes, the residents in the corridor gave a knowing look at us and one said, “You're hear to see Charles, right?” During our interview, Yvette took a call from an American journalist about arranging an interview.
Charles and Yvette had a lot of time for us, and they were very friendly, with Yvette showing me her vast collection of antique French bottle corkers as well as the view from the balcony of their second floor flat. Charles was very lucid and able to recount tales from his racing days. Given his mobility issues (he uses a zimmer frame) the Frenchman doesn't go out so much, but he busies himself watching the various professional cycle races. At the time we visited, the Ardennes Classics were the main talking point, and Charles had a lot to say about the different racers. He wouldn't have been out of place being a cycling pundit.
It was a pleasure a interviewing Charles Coste, and I am glad to have been able write up this piece for Rouleur magazine.
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