Alexis Pantchoulidzew

Due to the Dutch boycott of the 1956 Melbourne Olympics over the Soviet response to the Hungarian revolt, the Netherlands did not participate in the 1956 Summer Games - except for Alexis Pantchoulidzew. He was the sole Dutch rider competing in the equestrian events, which due to Australia’s quarantine regulations were held in Stockholm, months before the rest of the Games took place in Melbourne. Pantchoulidzew, also “Tchouli”, ranked 28th and is still the oldest ever Dutch Olympic competitor at 67 years. The Russian-born rider owed his participation mainly to the Dutch Prince Consort and president of the International Equestrian Federation (FEI), Bernhard, Prins der Nederlanden.

The two first met in Germany in the 1920s, when Pantchoulidzew came to work as an overseer at the West Prussian estate of Bernhard’s family. Pantchoulidzew, of Georgian-Russian noble stock, had been a former cavalryman in the Russian army. After seeing action in World War I, Pantchoulidzew and his wife fled Russia during the revolution, staying in Finland and Denmark before landing in Germany. As a former jumping competitor, he taught the young Bernhard how to ride. When Bernhard married the Dutch crown princess Juliana in 1937, Pantchoulidzew was one of Bernhard’s witnesses. He lived as a companion with Bernhard’s mother Armgard until his death. Some speculate about an intimate relationship between them, although there is no evidence of this.

In 1949 Bernhard, now Prince Consort after his wife ascended to the throne in 1948, arranged for the stateless Pantchoulidzew to receive Dutch citizenship, despite not meeting the official requirements. In the 1950s, he started dressage training with his horse Lascar. He represented the Netherlands at some minor competitions, such as the 1953 Genève Concours Hippique, but without much success. The Dutch NOC was not planning to send any riders to Stockholm, but several weeks before the Games, Pantchoulidzew was suddenly put forward by the Dutch Equestrian Federation. This was the work of Bernhard, who after a failed attempt to ride himself at the 1952 Olympics, had become president of the Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) in 1954. The NOC administrators, unwilling to obstruct the Prince Consort, allowed the participation on condition that the rider (or, more likely, Bernhard) paid his own expenses.

In the background, Bernhard had become involved in a conflict with his wife. Bernhard, a noted philanderer, was not pleased with his wife’s obsession with faith healer Greet Hofmans, who entered the royal family to help their youngest daughter Marijke. Hofmans allegedly influenced Juliana to keep Bernhard’s mother Armgard and her partner Pantchoulidzew out of the Dutch palaces and divorce Bernhard. An annoyed Bernhard then decided to share information about Hofmans’ influence with a German journalist of Der Spiegel, which published “Between Queen and Rasputin” during the Equestrian Olympics in Stockholm. Bernhard’s gambit worked: after involvement of the Dutch government, Hofmans was removed from the court (and he remained Prince Consort).

There’s also evidence of Pantchoulidzew’s involvement in another of Bernhard’s shady dealings. In 1960, Bernhard asked American airplane manufacturer for a 1.1 million dollar bribe to ensure the Dutch would purchase Lockheed’s F-104 over a French competitor. Pantchoulidzew’s role was to meet a Lockheed representative on 3 October 1960 in a hotel in Zürich to give instructions on how to transfer the money. This bribery scandal became public in 1975, some seven years after Pantchoulidzew’s death.