Catch / Wrestling / Weightlifting / Rigoulot / Cello / Le Vé - Lot 16

Catch / Wrestling / Weightlifting / Rigoulot / Cello / Le Vésinet Marcel JUSERET, known as CELLO (1895-1965) Charles Rigoulot (1903-1962) as a wrestler (circa 1938) and standing Superb original grease pencil drawing After his Olympic title (gold medal in light-heavyweight at the second Paris Games in 1924 with 322 kg in 3 movements), Charles became "the strongest man in the world" in 1925-26 after his matches with Cadine (Olympic champion in 1920), juggling world records in strength and weightlifting. He is said to have broken 111 in the former category, and 56 in the latter. He was also one of the few to hold the famous Apollon axle, Louis Uni's (166, 500 kg, in the Musée National du Sport, Nice, two wagon wheels connected by a 5 cm diameter bar!) With nothing left to prove when it came to weightlifting, the great Charles made the most of his immense popularity by switching to catch-as-can, at the Cirque National and elsewhere, where his matches with Deglane (another Olympic champion) were epic. He also competed in motor racing (Bol d'or 1937) and cinema. Artist Cello has captured him here, palms open. A double conjugation: the meeting of an immense champion, and an immense artist-caricaturist-afficaturist, sadly forgotten. Charles, this authentic phenomenon, who was the precious powerhouse of combat and strength sports, could not fail to inspire the great poet Georges Pérec. Related detail: in his early days, he was a member of the Pons Amical Club.