Carmelo Camet

Carmelo Félix Camet (October 29, 1904 – July 22, 2007) was an Argentine fencer who competed in the Olympic Games in 1928. He was the son of Francisco Carmelo Camet, a fencer at the 1900 Summer Olympics who is sometimes considered to be Argentina's first participant at the Olympics. Trained as a lawyer, Carmelo Camet gained his training and love for fencing at an early age from his father. By the 1920s he had already won several tournaments and, in 1926, he won the Argentine national fencing championship.

Although Camet successfully completed all of the trials required of him by the nascent Argentine Olympic Committee, he did not attend the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, although his name was on the official register as a non-participant. After taking a brief break to finish his law degree, he was part of the Argentine fencing delegation sent to the 1928 Summer Olympics. There, as the substitute on the foil team foil, he won a bronze medal, Argentine's only medal in that sport as of 2008. Although he sat out the first two matches with Norway and Spain, he replaced Héctor Lucchetti during the matches against Belgium and all subsequent events. At the time of his death in 2007, in Buenos Aires, Camet was believed to be the world's oldest living Olympic competitor.

Early life Carmelo Camet was born in Mar del Plata on October 29, 1904, the son of Francisco Carmen Camet, a fencer at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris, and Clara Isa. The elder Camet, though officially an athlete from France, is considered by some to be Argentina's first Olympic participant. This is disputed, however, by those who claim that Horatio Torromé should hold this title as the first official Argentine representative. Carmelo had one brother, Carlos Ernesto Camet, who pursued a political career. Carlos, who served as a deputy to the national congress, was, like the rest of his family, supportive of the Radical Civil Union, an Argentine political reform party formed in the 1890s. He continued to practice fencing until 1926 when, after winning a national championship, he put the sport on hold to complete his law degree.

Camet, therefore, won the bronze medal in the team foil category, along with his teammates, despite what he considered to be adverse rulings from the jurors.