A 100-year-old French gold medalist who says he wants peace for everyone has taken part in the torch relay for the Paris Olympics.

Charles Coste is one of more than 10,000 torch bearers for the Summer Games that open on Friday.

He was born in 1924, the last time the Olympics were held in Paris. He won a gold medal for France in track cycling at the 1948 London Games.

The London Olympics were the first to be held after World War Two. Military facilities were converted into athletes' housing. Japan and Germany did not take part in the 1948 Games.

Coste said the French and the English were traumatized by what happened during the war, and London still remembered the bombings.

But he said the athletes forgot the horrors of the war during the Games, and they were "full of happiness" when they were on the podium to receive medals.

The Olympic organizing committee contacted Coste toward the end of last year about becoming a torch bearer. The former Olympian has trouble walking, but decided to take part in the hope that wars that claim so many lives will come to an end. He says he wants peace for everyone.

On Wednesday, the centenarian carried the Olympic flame about 200 meters to the next torch bearer in Bois-Colombes, near Paris, where Coste lives. The crowd cheered when he held the torch with both hands as his wheelchair was pushed by his oldest son.

Coste said it was a "great pleasure" to carry the flame and a "great honor." He said if the Olympics bring peace, it will be a great good and that's what he wants with all his heart.