At the dawn of modern Olympism and during the second edition of the JJOO in Paris there was a curious and at the same time strange case that remains unresolved today despite the fact that many historians have unsuccessfully investigated it. More than a century has passed and the identity of the so-called unknown medalist remains a mystery.

It happened on August 26, 1900, during the Remo competition and specifically in the mode of two with timonel. The Dutch François Brandt and Roelof Klein, from the Minerva club in Rotterdam, who had been seconds in their semi-final series to almost nine seconds from the French team, from the Societé Nautique Marne, realized that the lightness of the gallons was due to a reason of weight as their timonel was a very thin young man who would not exceed the kilos.

So things decided to replace their usual timonel, Hermanus Brockman, whose weight was about 60 kilos, with a thin French young man weighing about half. The result was decisive, as the Dutch beat the French in the final by two tenths and won the gold medal. Although this young man posed with them, as the photo accompanying this comment testifies, his identity is unknown as well as his age which would most likely place him as the youngest male medalist in the history of modern JJOO.

According to all the available data, his age in a fork that goes from seven to twelve years, if it was closer to ten years than at twelve years, would confirm him as such since the most early medalist documented is the Greek gymnast Dimitros Loundras, which, without reaching eleven years, was bronze medal in parallel in the first edition of modern JJOO in Athens 1896.

As for the female category, the youngest medalist is also a gymnast, the Italian Luigina Giavolti who, in Amsterdam 1928, obtained the silver medal as part of the Italian team.

Text: Juan Manuel Surroco
Blog: http: / / elmargadordejmsurrop.blogspot.com.es /
Twitter: @ SurrocaJM

Photos: Archive Paris 1900