Giorgio Cesana

Barely 14 years old, Giorgio Cesana won three gold medals at the 1906 Olympics. More than a century later, he is still the youngest ever Italian gold medallist. As a coxswain, he steered the coxed pairs to two victories - two competitions were scheduled for this boat type - and added one more with the coxed fours. This boat, of the Bucintoro club from Venice, was lucky to even qualify for the Olympics. The qualifiers were held on Rome’s Tiber river, and the narrow and shallow river forced one of Bucintoro’s opponents to give up, while they themselves collided with another rival, which allowed them to overtake and qualify for Athens.