Nikita Simonyan becomes the oldest living Olympic champion

Following the death of French cyclist Charles Coste, who passed away on October 30 at the age of 101, the title of the oldest living Olympic champion has passed to legendary Soviet footballer Nikita Pavlovich Simonyan.

Simonyan, who turned 99 on October 12, is an Olympic champion of 1956 as a member of the USSR national football team. At the Melbourne Olympics, he played a key role in the Soviet team’s success, helping them win the gold medals.

Born in 1926 in Armavir under the name Mkrtich Pogosovich Simonyan, he became famous as one of the best forwards in Soviet football, playing for Moscow’s Spartak. After retiring as a player, Simonyan became a successful coach and football official, serving as president of the Russian Football Union and as coach and architect of the legendary “Ararat-1973” team from Yerevan.

Charles Coste, the French Olympic champion of the 1948 London Games in team pursuit, was a symbol of generational continuity: he passed the Olympic flame to French champions during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Games. After his passing, Nikita Simonyan has become the living link between modern sports and the heroic era of the postwar Olympics.