At the age of 12 years, 233 days, Noël Vandernotte won two Olympic rowing bronze medals and became the youngest medalist at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, as well as the youngest-ever French Olympic medalist. He won his prizes in the coxed pairs, with Georges Tapie and Marceau Fourcade, and in the coxed fours alongside his father Fernand, uncle Marcel, Jean Cosmat, and Marcel Chauvigné. The same quintet had also taken silver at the 1934 European Championships behind the Italians. In addition to rowing, Noël was also active in bodybuilding and basketball.
During World War II, Fernand was a member of the French resistance and was eventually sent to a concentration camp, although he survived. Noël remained hidden and on occasion used evidence of his Olympic participation to avoid arrest by German patrols. He continued to row for a short period after the conflict, winning the national championship in the coxed fours in 1946, but eventually settled into a career as an insurance agent. In 2015 he was made a chevalier of the Legion d’Honneur.
France