19 August 2024

Everyone interested in rowing history and Olympic history has undoubtedly hear or come across the story about the French boy who was picked up from the crowd at the 1900 Olympic rowing to cox the Dutch oarsmen Francois Antoine Brandt and Roelof Klein to Olympic gold in the coxed pair. To this day no one knows the name of the boy. There exists a photograph (see above) of the winning crew, taken before the boy disappeared back into the crowd.

The boy looks very young and historians have asked the question if he might have been the youngest Olympian ever.

One of the historians who has done research to try to solve the mystery about the unknow boy is Hilary Evans, who is a sheep farmer in Wales and an Olympic historian when he is not tending to his sheep.

During the 2024 Olympic Games an article was published in Voice of America where Evans was interviewed. Find a link to the article “’Unknown Boy’ may be the youngest ever Olympic champion” here.

The mystery boy has of course appeared in articles on HTBS. Greg Denieffe wrote about him in June 2014, “The Birth of Modern Olympic Rowing” – see here.