Sébastienne Guyot

In her remarkable life Sébastienne Guyot was an engineer specialising in aviation, was a member of the French Resistance, and represented France at the Olympics as a middle-distance runner. Guyot began working as a teacher before she quit the profession to study mechanics at the École Centrale Paris (Central School of Paris), graduating in 1921. She then moved into aviation throughout the 1920s, first starting work on small twin-engine planes, before working on building and designing the fuselage and hulls of seaplanes. By the early 1930s Guyot had learnt how to fly and bought her own light plane.

Outside of her work in aeronautical engineering Guyot was also a talented athlete, with her becoming the French cross-country running champion in 1928. Her performances earned her a place on the French Olympic team for the Amsterdam Games. She ran in the 800 metres where she finished seventh in her heat, with only the top three athletes advancing to the final. She finished as the runner-up in the national cross-country races in 1929 and 1930, before retiring from athletics in 1932.

During World War II Guyot was a member of the French Resistance. In mid-1940 she learnt that her younger brother was being held in a prison of war camp in the commune of Mulsanne. Against all the odds she managed to get inside the camp to find her brother. She was soon arrested by the Germans, however, court martialled, and sentenced to six months in jail. Whilst imprisoned Guyot was badly beaten and tortured by the Gestapo, which resulted in her being transported to a hospital in Paris. Due to the poor conditions she endured in the prison, including severe malnourishment and gangrene, Guyot died in the Parisian hospital in August 1941. She was 45-years-old. In March 1947 she was posthumously awarded with the Resistance Medal.

Personal Best: 800 – 2:26.4 (1928).