Jean-Claude Hamel’s father René won two medals for France in cycling’s road race at the 1924 Paris Olympics: bronze individually and gold with the team. Jean-Claude’s athletic career, however, took a different path. The younger Hamel trained in the modern pentathlon and won the French national title in 1956, which led to his selection to represent his country at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. There, he placed 33rd in a field of 40 entrants as the lone French participant. Jean-Claude attended Harvard University and then the Boston Business School in the 1950s, returning to France after obtaining his credentials from these institutions.
France