French swimmer Fabien Gilot won the Silver medal in the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay. Photo: The Israel Project.
A member of Team France, which won a silver medal on Monday in the men’s freestyle relay finals at the 2016 Olympic Games, is the grandson of a Holocaust survivor.
French swimmer Fabien Gilot — who, as Tablet reported, sports a Hebrew tattoo that says, “Without them, I am nothing” — explained that the engraving is a tribute to his Jewish grandfather, the late Max Goldschmidt, an Auschwitz survivor who greatly influenced his life.
Goldschmidt grew up in Berlin and after World War II moved to France, where he met his wife and raised a family, according to Tablet. Gilot’s father, Michel, said Goldschmidt, who died in 2012, was an inspiration to the Olympic athlete and witnessed many of his achievements.
The French team came in second, behind Team USA, powered by Michael Phelps and Nathan Adrian.