CHARLES COSTE, the world’s oldest living Olympian and a cycling champion, has died aged 101.

The French presidency said in a statement today that Coste died last Thursday.

Coste won the team pursuit gold medal at the 1948 Olympic Games in London at the famed Herne Hill velodrome. He returned to the spotlight last year as the second-to-last bearer of the Olympic flame for the 2024 Paris Games.

Emmanuel Macron’s office said Coste was “until his final breath, the tireless messenger of a certain idea of sport.”

Coste moved the Paris crowd as he carried the Olympic torch, dressed all in white in a wheelchair in the rain. He lit the torches of French Olympic gold medallists Teddy Riner and Marie-Jose Perec, who teamed to light the cauldron during the rain-soaked opening ceremony.

“That moment symbolised the passion and spirit of transmission that drove him,” Riner said. “Charles Coste embodied dedication, respect and love for sport in all its forms.”

Coste became the oldest living Olympic champion in January following the death of Hungarian gymnast Agnes Keleti.

He grew up near the southern port city of Toulon and began pedalling as a child on a wooden tricycle. Excelling on the track, he was crowned French amateur pursuit champion in 1947 and won a bronze medal at the world championships the next year.

He captured Olympic gold for France in the men’s team pursuit in the first post-World War II Games alongside teammates Pierre Adam, Serge Blusson and Fernand Decanali, a quartet known as the “ABCD” team. Their win by nearly 39 seconds over Italy remains the greatest margin in Olympic history.

After the Olympics, Coste turned professional with the Peugeot team and achieved a prestigious victory at the 1949 Grand Prix des Nations, defeating Italy cycling great Fausto Coppi.

He retired in 1959 after competing in two Tours de France and four Giros, according to the Elysee palace.