François Antoine BRANDT

François Brandt is one of the two first Dutchman to win an Olympic title, winning the 1900 coxed pairs competition with Roelof Klein and an unknown French cox, who is possibly the youngest Olympic champion ever. Their original cox was Hermanus Brockmann, but with 60 kg he was much heavier than the coxswains of the competing crews, some of which used local boys. This switch won them 27 kg in weight, but they had to add five more kilogrammes as the boat's rudder was now above water. Brandt and Klein took the lead from the start, finishing with just one fifth of a second behind the second-placed French team. Brandt also rowed in the Dutch eight, which did use Brockmann as the coxswain, which according to the Dutch coach cost them first or second place. Brandt studied civil engineering in Delft until 1900, and represented the student rowing club LAGA at the Olympics. After his studies, he joined the Dutch railways, where he worked until 1938. In that year, he was ordained bishop for Belgium and Netherlands for the Liberal Catholic Church.