Hundred-year-old French cycling champion to take part in Olympic torch relay

Charles Coste, a former French Olympic cycling champion, celebrated his 100th birthday last February. In a few months' time, he will be one of the 10,000 torch bearers for Paris 2024.

Charles Coste reads press articles about his 1948 Olympic title during a photo session at home in Bois-Colombes near Paris. © AFP - Joël Saget

The torch relay for the Paris Olympics begins in Marseille on 8 May and will finish for the start of the Games on 26 July.

It will pass through 400 towns with 10,000 torch bearers. The oldest of them is Charles Coste who turned 100 on 8 February.

Coste is France's oldest Olympic champion. He won a gold medal at the London 1948 Games in the team pursuit event in track cycling.

He now lives in Bois-Colombes near Paris and in his flat, there is an entire room dedicated to his Olympic memories. His gold medal is in a display case, along with his other awards.

Charles Coste's Olympic medal that he won during the London Games in 1948. © AFP - Joel Saget

The Olympic champion has forgotten nothing of his victory at the London Games in 1948.

"Being Olympic champion was our dream come true that day," he told RFI's Loreen Duret.

The day was marked by the medal ceremony, which was different from today's ceremony.

"We were on a very small podium. It was hard to keep the four of us together. We were given the medal in a box," Coste explained.

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That day, however, there was a slight downside. Charles and his team-mates were deprived of their national anthem.

"We waited for a while and then we were told: 'We haven't found the Marseillaise disc, so you can get off the podium.'

"We were a little bit disappointed, of course, but our dream had been fulfilled and that was already a great joy."

Gold medallists French Fernand Decanali, Pierre Adam, Serge Blusson and Charles Coste pose on the podium after the men's Team Pursuit finals track cycling event during the London summer Olympic Games on 10 August, 1948. © AFP - Files

Coste's passion for cycling started at a very young age:

"My parents bought me a tricycle. I used to go round the table at home. I was two, two and a half years old.

"I've always had an Olympic spirit. My mother used to say that when I was 10-12 years old I'd be an Olympic champion or a general in the army. I preferred to choose Olympic champion."

Cycling also enabled him to meet his wife Yvette over 60 years ago in Rambouillet near Versailles during a cycling race.

76 years after his victory, Coste is set to attend the Paris Games this summer.

"It's fantastic for me. I was born in 1924. I was an Olympic champion at the age of 24 and in 2024, I hope to attend the Paris Games, which for me is spectacular," he said.

One hundred years on, he will be participating in his own way in this new edition in the capital as one of the torch-bearers.