At the 1908 Summer Games, Aubert Coté earned Canada’s first Olympic medal in wrestling by capturing bronze in the freestyle bantamweight event, despite having failed to be chosen at the Olympic trials and electing to pay his own way to London. After receiving a bye in the first round, he defeated Frank Davis of Great Britain and then lost to eventual gold medalist George Mehnert of the United States. He then bested Great Britain’s Frederick Tomkins in the third-place match to earn a spot in his nation’s sport history. Coté was active in Montreal’s local wrestling scene at the turn of the century and became Canadian and North American bantamweight champion in 1906, but lost the continental crown to Henry Gaudette the following year. He moved to the United States several years after the Olympics and lived in Montana, where he became state champion in the 125-pound class. He eventually settled in Utah, where he worked as a wrestling coach at Brigham Young University until his death in May 1938.
Canada