(Poul Svendsen, pictured at Sjællandske Medier)

Oldest Olympians is saddened to learn that Danish rower Poul Svendsen, born April 21, 1927, died January 2 at the age of 96. Svendsen represented Denmark in the coxed pairs event at the 1952 Helsinki Games, where he won a bronze medal alongside Svend Pedersen and Jørgen Frantzen. A member of the Frederiksværk Roklub, he was the last surviving member of his bronze medal-winning crew.

At the time of his death, Svendsen was also the oldest living Olympic rowing medalist. That distinction now goes to Giuseppe Moioli, born August 8, 1927, who was already the oldest living Olympic rowing champion. Moioli won gold in the coxless fours at the 1948 London Games, just missed the podium in fourth in 1956 Melbourne, and also competed in 1952 Helsinki. He was a five-time European champion in this event between 1947 and 1956, and also won with the eights in 1958, in addition to a coxless fours gold medal at the 1955 Mediterranean Games. He later worked as a coach.

(Lothar Milde)

Finally, as a small update, we received several sources demonstrating that a previous Olympic medal mystery, East German Olympic medalist Lothar Milde, was still alive, as recently as 2023, and thus we have added him to our tables! We have also received evidence that Jean-Claude Lecante, who we also featured in that entry, is still alive, which we hope to confirm shortly so that we can add him to our tables as well!