20th-century French people

Gérard d'Aboville (born 5 September 1945 in Paris) is the first man to row across two oceans solo: the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. He crossed the Atlantic in 1980, travelling from Cape Cod to Brittany. D'Aboville previously built boats and organized races before undertaking this 3,500 mile trip, which he completed in 72 days. In 1981, he was a recipient of the Silver Olympic Order.In 1991, at the age of 46 he spent 134 days crossing the Pacific Ocean, beginning in Japan and ending in Washington state. For this crossing, d'Aboville's twenty-six foot craft, nicknamed "Sector", had a pumping system to right the boat if it capsized, a sleeping place, and a canopy to protect him from inclement weather. The boat was made out of the light, sturdy composite material Kevlar, and had attached solar panels that charged the batteries of d'Aboville's radio. Items he brought included a video camera and stove. He faced forty foot waves and winds speeds reaching eighty miles per hour. In total, d'Aboville covered six thousand miles during his journey.
From 2010 to 2012 he skippered Tûranor PlanetSolar the first solar power yacht to circumnavigate the world.
He now skippers the yacht, renamed Race for Water from the name of the Foundation that now operates her. and they now work to protect the seas from plastic pollution.As a politician, d'Aboville served in Parliament from 1994 to 1999 and on the Committee on Fisheries. In 2008, he was elected a Council of Paris (UMP).

Jacques "Jacky" Boxberger (16 April 1949 – 9 August 2001) was a track and field athlete from France who specialized in long-distance races.
He was the great hope of French middle-distance running, breaking the junior world record in the 1500 metres at Stade Charléty in 1968. He represented France at the 1968, 1972, 1976 and 1984 Summer Olympics, placing sixth in the 1968 1500 metres and 42nd in the 1984 marathon. He also won the Paris Marathon in 1983 and 1985, the 1500 metres title at the 1972 European Athletics Indoor Championships, the Marrakech Marathon in 1987, and French titles in the 1500 metres, 5000 metres, and 10000 metres. He suffered a knee injury during his military service with the Joinville battalion. His career was the most brilliant among male French distance runners of his era behind only that of former world mile record-holder Michel Jazy.Boxberger was part of the French team that finished third at the World Cross Country Championships in 1976.
In 2001, Boxberger was on vacation with his family in Kenya. While he was trying to film an elephant on a safari, the animal picked him up with its trunk, threw him against a tree, and trampled him to death.The middle distance runner Ophélie Claude-Boxberger is his daughter.

Grégory Mallet (born 21 March 1984) is a French Olympic swimmer.

Marcel Henri Vandernotte (29 July 1909 – 15 December 1993) was a French rower who competed in the 1932 Summer Olympics and in the 1936 Summer Olympics.
He was born in Nantes. He was the younger brother of Fernand Vandernotte and the uncle of Noël Vandernotte. In 1932 he was eliminated with his brother Fernand in the repechage of the coxed pair event. Four years later he won the bronze medal as crew member of the French boat in the coxed four competition.

Guy Nosbaum (10 May 1930 – 12 August 1996) was a French rower who competed in the 1952 Summer Olympics and in the 1960 Summer Olympics. He was Jewish, and was born in Corbeil. In 1952 he was a crew member of the French boat which was eliminated in the semi-finals of the coxed four event. Eight years later he won the silver medal with the French boat in the coxed fours competition.

Eugène Louis Constant (8 January 1901 – 22 October 1970) was a French rower who competed in the 1924 Summer Olympics.In 1924 he won the silver medal as member of the French boat in the coxed four event. He also finished fourth as part of the French boat in the coxed pair competition.

André Gardère (8 May 1913 – 16 February 1977) was a French foil and sabre fencer. He won a silver medal in the team foil event at the 1936 Summer Olympics.

Charles Pacôme (5 November 1902 – 1 October 1978), born in Bergues, Nord, was a French olympic champion in freestyle wrestling.

Charles Bozon Jr. (15 December 1932 – 7 July 1964) was an alpine ski racer and world champion from France.Born in Chamonix, Haute-Savoie, Bozon won a gold medal in the slalom at the 1962 World Championships, held at his hometown of Chamonix in a snowstorm. Earlier, he had won a bronze medal in the slalom at the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California, and two world championship silver medals in the combined in 1956 and 1960.
Bozon suffered fractured vertebra in the giant slalom at the world championships in 1958 and vowed not to compete again. He did not compete in the Olympics in 1964.Bozon died in 1964 at age 31 in a mountain climbing accident near Mont Blanc. He and 13 climbing companions were killed in an avalanche on the Aiguille Verte, a 4,122-metre (13,524 ft) mountain in the Mont Blanc massif. The climbing party had reached an elevation of about 2,700 m (9,000 ft) when the avalanche occurred. Bozon's father, Charles, Sr., had died on the same slope in an avalanche in 1938.Less than three months earlier, an avalanche in Switzerland claimed the lives of two noted alpine racers, Buddy Werner of the U.S. and Barbi Henneberger of West Germany.

Laurent Terzieff (27 June 1935, in Toulouse – 2 July 2010, in Paris) was a French actor.