Today on Oldest Olympians, we wanted to highlight an unusual topic: firefighting at the 1900 Paris Olympics. Firefighting was a demonstration event in Paris, and more of a feature of the Exposition than an intended part of the Games. Sources claim that numerous nations took part in the competition, although the only ones listed in the official report are France, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, and the United States. Even then, these crews were composed of local houses, rather than teams selected by a national body.

(Guilherme Gomes Fernandes)

Of the four events, one was limited to French crews, of whom 47 took part, with too many individuals to keep track of. Another was strictly British, of which we know at least partial biographical details for about half of the participants. For the international volunteer event, we know of the names of all of the third-place Hungarian crew members, but no biographical details, some information on the runner-up British delegation, and only one individual from the winning Portuguese team, Guilherme Gomes Fernandes. Only for the professional event do we have full biographical details of the winning team, Kansas City, but even here we do not have a single name from the second-place Italian crew.

(Peter von Lerch)

Of course, none of the involved individuals are still alive, nor do we expect that readers will have information on any of the competitors. It does, however, remind us that demonstration events are party of the rich history of the Games, hence why Oldest Olympians chooses to cover them. In theory we could go even further, covering referees, flagbearers, and even organizational presidents such as Gordon Jeffrey, former head of the International Golf Federation, who recently turned 91. In that spirit, we have two updates from previous Olympic-adjacent mysteries. First, we learned that Franz Hiermann, who was a member of the Austrian military ski patrol team that placed fourth in that event at the 1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen Games, was born May 27, 1912 and died March 26, 2005. Secondly, Peter von Lerch, who represented Austria in the gliding demonstration event at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, was born May 30, 1911 and died May 24, 1973.

Today on Oldest Olympians we are looking at some recent Olympic medal mysteries. These are cases of Olympians who won a medal at the Games, but we have been unable to confirm whether they are alive or deceased within the past decade. The first is German sport shooter Heinz Mertel, born July 19, 1936. Mertrel represented West Germany in three editions of the free pistol event, 1968-1976, winning silver in 1968 and just missing a medal in fourth in 1976. He was the 1969 European Champion and a World bronze medalist with the team in 1970. Domestically, he captured nine titles. We suspect that he is still alive, but we have been unable to locate conclusive proof.

Second, we have Russian speed skater Tatyana Sidorova, born July 25, 1936. Sidorova represented the Soviet Union in two editions of the 500 metres event, winning bronze in 1964 and coming in joint-ninth in 1968. Despite never medalling at the World Championships, she set three world records in her event and was twice the Soviet champion, in addition to being the 1000 metres Soviet champion in 1966. We believe that she is alive as well, but have not found a source to confirm it.

While on the topic of Soviet Olympic mysteries, we have a non-medal one in the person of water polo player Anatoly Yegorov. Yegorov, born in 1922, represented the Soviet Union in the tournament at the 1952 Helsinki Games, where his nation was eliminated in the semi-finals and placed seventh overall. An anonymous user added a full date of birth of April 25, 1922 to his Wikipedia page, and claimed that he was born and died in Moscow, but we have been unable to verify this.

Today we believe that the oldest living Romanian Olympian, Francisc Horvath, is celebrating his 98^th birthday. We featured Horvath in our Olympic medal mysteries series some time ago, as he won bronze in bantamweight, Greco-Roman wrestling at the 1956 Melbourne Games. In response, one reader provided a report that showed him alive in 2021, but others have pointed out sources claiming that he died in 1969 or 1980, and it remains unclear which is correct. Nonetheless, since there is a reasonable chance that he is still alive, we are wishing him a happy birthday!

On the topic of Romanian Olympians, Connor Mah was able to solve a case from 1928 that we covered on this blog several years ago. Back in 2022, we noted that we knew nothing about an individual by the name of Ion Haidu who represented Romania in the decathlon but did not finish. Mah discovered that Haidu’s real name was Kurt Haydn, and that he was born August 15, 1900 and killed in World War II on June 2, 1942.

Today we have a new set of Olympic milestone birthdays, so once again we are going to cover both instead of choosing between them!

First, we are wishing Italian race walker Abdon Pamich a happy 93^rd birthday as the oldest living Italian Olympic medalist! Pamich represented his country in five consecutive editions of the 50 kilometer race walk from 1956 through 1972. He won the event in 1964 and also took bronze in 1960, just missing a third medal by placing fourth in 1956. He also took the title at the Mediterranean Games in 1955, 1963, and 1971, as well as at the European Championships in 1962 and 1966, coming in second in 1958. He was a 40-time national champion across various distances and later worked as a sports psychologist and coach.

Next, we are wishing a happy 92^nd birthday to José Manuel Quina, the oldest living Portuguese Olympic medalist! Quina and his brother Mário took silver in the Star class sailing tournament at the 1960 Rome Games and placed 17^th in 1968. José Manuel also competed in the Finn class at the 1972 edition, where he placed 11^th, and took part in several editions of the European championships. He continued to compete nationally until 2008.

While we are on the topic of Olympic medalists, we want to mention an Olympic medal mystery that was on our list for a long time, before being solved recently by Connor Mah. Austrian canoer Herbert Wiedermann, born November 1, 1927, won bronze medals in the K-2 1000 event at the 1952 and 1956 Summer Olympics. As discovered by Mah, Wiedermann died May 6, 2014, at the age of 86.