Based in Agon-Coutainville (Manche), Roger Lebranchu was part of the French rowing team at the London Olympics in 1948. At 102, he was the oldest member of the 2024 Olympic flame relay, which he taken to Mont-Saint-Michel.
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Former member of the French rowing team Roger Lebranchu, who was a resistance fighter and the oldest bearer of the Olympic flame, died at the age of 102, the French Rowing Federation announced this Friday, January 10 .
>> Olympic Flame. UNUSUAL. At 102, Roger Lebranchu trains for his relay: “sport saved me”
A survivor of the Buchenwald Nazi concentration camp during the Second World War, Roger Lebranchu, who lived in Agon-Coutainville, participated in the 1948 London Olympic team games, finishing in fourth place in the coxed eight event.
Last May, he participated in the Olympic torch relay, lighting the cauldron as the flame passed through Mont-Saint-Michel.
A few weeks before this historic relay, Roger Lebranchu hosted France 3 Normandie at his home and recounted in particular his participation in the first Olympics organized after the Second World War. “We marched at Wembley Stadium in front of King George VI. There was also Elizabeth“, remembered the former top athlete. Unfortunately, the Olympic adventure will quickly end. “The first race we do, we run into the Americans. And they were the ones who won the games. We weren’t lucky enough to meet the strongest right away.”
Roger Lebranchu also recounted, under the eye of our cameras, his escape, with the support of the Resistance, to escape the STO (compulsory labor) during the Second World War. But also his arrest and transfer to Buchenwald, where he remained for two years.
“Sport saved me“, then estimated Roger Lebranchu. “There were many students at the camp. For them, it was difficult, starting with the lack of food. I passed that. I always played sports so I was always a fighter. I owe my survival to willpower. I told myself I would get there. In sport, we suffer. We go beyond ourselves.“
The ceremony will be held on Wednesday January 15 at 10:30 a.m. at the Saint-Évroult church in Agon-Coutainville.
