Benoît Caranobe


Benoît Caranobe is a French former gymnast who won a bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Caranobe was the first Frenchman to medal in the Individual All-Around competition since Marco Torrès won silver and Jean Gounot won bronze in said event at the 1920 Antwerp Olympics.

2004 Athens Olympics

In his first Olympic appearance, Benoît Caranobe placed 19th in the men's all around competition and helped the French men's team to a 9th-place finish in the team qualification, though not enough to make the team finals.

2008 Beijing Olympics

Caranobe qualified to the all around finals in tenth place, 2.950 points behind the leader Yang Wei. In the all-around finals, Caranobe finished in third place, ahead of medal favorites Hiroyuki Tomita, Fabian Hambüchen, and Yang Tae-Young. His third-place finish is particularly surprising given that Benoît had placed only third at the French National Gymnastics championships.

Later life

Caranobe retired from competition in 2013. He is the owner of a wine shop in Noisy-le-Grand near Paris and also works as an acrobat at the Moulin Rouge cabaret.