Jean Laudet, who won France’s only Olympic gold medal in canoeing at the 1952 Olympic Games, died on Saturday at the age of 95, the French Canoe-Kayak Federation (FFCK) announced on Monday. Winner at the age of 21 in a two-seater canoe in Helsinki with his teammate and friend Georges Turlier, Jean Laudet “died on Saturday December 20, 2025 in Nevers, the city where he was born,” wrote the FFCK in a press release published on its website.
An all-round sportsman, he first “practiced swimming, athletics and especially rugby”, before discovering at 16 “the pleasure of gliding on the water within the Nevers canoe club”, it is indicated. If the canoe adventure had not gone further, Jean Laudet had become an antiques dealer while continuing to be involved in sport, particularly golf, of which he was a leader.
“Jean was a man of great elegance, always full of communicative energy and looking to the future conscious of having lived a beautiful life “, further commented the Canoe-Kayak Federation. In a photo published on the FFCK website, we see him exchanging all smiles, in June 2024 on the Olympic site of Vaires-sur-Marne, with two kayaking champions, the German Ricarda Funk and the Franco-Australian Jessica Fox.
His death comes less than two months after that of former cyclist Charles Coste, the world’s oldest Olympic champion, who died on November 2 at the age of 101.
