The identity of the youngest person ever to win a gold medal in the Olympics, in fact, the youngest person to compete period, is a complete mystery. It's all because in 1900, the rules were a lot more relaxed than they are now.

The International Society of Olympic Historians says that year in the coxed pairs rowing event (two people rowing, with a third person in the boat telling them what to do), the Dutch team was expected to dominate. But during qualifying, they were beaten by 8.6 seconds by a French pair.

The problem was obvious. The Frenchmen had a child as their coxswain, while the Dutch team used a fully grown man. The weight difference was significant, and it made them much slower. Before the final, the Dutch guys ditched their teammate and grabbed a kid from the crowd. The child was so light they had to add a weight to his side of the boat so it went deep enough in the water.

The change worked. The Dutch team won the gold medal, and since he was technically a member of the team, the kid won, too. He stuck around long enough for a photograph and then disappeared in the crowd, and now his name and age have disappeared from history. Estimates are he was between 7 and 10 years old, which, if accurate, would make him the youngest Olympic champion by far.