French Olympism has lost its dean. Crowned in a two-seater canoe during the Helsinki Olympic Games in 1952, Jean Laudet died on Saturday December 20 in Nevers, where he was born ninety-five years ago, revealed The Center Journal. Ill for several months, he was hospitalized at the beginning of December.
On July 27, 1952, he and his great friend from the Nivernaise Sports Union Georges Turlier won, to everyone’s surprise, the 10,000 m two-seater canoe race. Due to a lack of sufficient support, the tandem was unable to pursue their promising career, but the two friends remained so.
The first Olympic champions of French canoeing, they were true pioneers of the discipline. The French Canoe-Kayak Federation paid tribute on Monday to “a man of great elegance, always full of communicative energy and looking to the future conscious of having lived “a good life””.
Former rugby player converted antique dealer
Within the Nivernaise Sports Union, Jean Laudet was first a rugby player, before discovering canoeing after returning from training. Throughout his life, he remained a passionate witness to the new generations of French players and a fervent supporter of USON Nevers rugby, his lifelong team.
After his Olympic title, he retrained as an antique dealer. In the 1950s, he opened a shop in his town of Pougues-les-Eaux (Nièvre), which he closed when he retired in 1990.
Recognized late in life, Jean Laudet and Georges Turlier were promoted to “sports glories” by the French International Sports Federation in 2020, a French equivalent of the North American Hall of Fame. The two men were also decorated with the Legion of Honor in 2022, seventy years after their gold medal. The champion smiled, confident that he did not attach much importance to it. In 2024, on the occasion of the Paris Games, he carried the Olympic flame in Vaires-sur-Marne (Seine-Marne), on the site of the kayaking events.
Since the death, at 101, of track cyclist Charles Coste on October 30, Jean Laudet was the oldest French Olympic champion. He then admitted to having taken ” a blow “ remembering his journey, trusting in Center Journal that he “never really realized [son] age “ until then. It is now his companion from Helsinki and lifelong friend Georges Turlier, 94 years old, the new dean of French Olympic champions.
