Agnes Keleti, world’s oldest Olympic champion and Holocaust survivor, dies aged 103
Agnes Keleti, the world’s oldest Olympic champion, has died at the age of 103, it has been announced.
Keleti was hospitalized in Budapest last week with pneumonia, with the former gymnast reportedly admitted on Christmas Day.
“We pray for her, she has great vitality,” her son Rafael Biro-Keleti told Hungarian media at the time.
Her press secretary Tamas Roth confirmed to AFP that Keleti had died in hospital on Thursday.
Keleti was one of Hungary’s most successful Olympians, winning 10 medals in gymnastics at the Helsinki 1952 and Melbourne 1956 Olympic Games.
She claimed the floor title in the Finnish capital, before winning the uneven bars, balance beam, floor and team event four years later.
Agnes Keleti, the world’s oldest Olympic champion, has died at the age of 103
Keleti was a five-time Olympic gold medalist, earning a total of ten medals at the Games
She made her first Olympic Games at the age of 31 because World War II postponed her debut
Keleti was born Agnes Klein in Budapest in 1921 and started gymnastics at the age of four.
She joined the VAC Sports Club, the only Jewish club in Budapest, and claimed the national title as a 16-year-old.
Her Olympic debut was postponed due to the cancellation of the 1940 and 1944 Games due to World War II.
Keleti had been kicked out of her gymnastics team in 1941 because of her Jewish heritage.
She adopted a false identity and worked as a maid during the war, with Keleti, her mother and sister surviving the Holocaust with the help of Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg.
However, Keleti’s father and other relatives died in the Auschwitz concentration camp.
They were among the 550,000 Hungarian Jews murdered in Auschwitz and other camps.
Keleti qualified for the 1984 Olympics after the war, but was unable to compete due to an ankle injury.
Keleti, left, was the most successful athlete at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics
Keleti survived the Holocaust and became one of the most decorated Jewish athletes in history
Her Olympic debut finally came in 1952 in Helsinki at the age of 31, where she claimed one gold, one silver and two bronze medals.
Keleti became the oldest gold medalist in gymnastics four years later in Melbourne.
She was the most successful athlete at the Games, winning four gold and two silver medals.
Keleti remained in Australia after the Olympics after the Soviet Union invaded Hungary during the Games and joined 44 other athletes from the Hungarian delegation in seeking political asylum.
The Olympic champion moved to Israel in 1957, where she met her husband Robert Biro and had two sons, Daniel and Rafael.
Keleti played a key role in the development of Israeli gymnastics, serving as a coach between 1958 and 1980, while also helping the Italian team prepare for the 1960 Olympics.
She also taught physical education at the Orde Wingate Institute in Israel and served as an international gymnastics judge, only choosing to retire at the age of 75.
Keleti was inducted into the International Gymnastics Federation Hall of Fame in 2002.
Keleti became the oldest Olympic champion ever in 2023, surpassing Sandor Tarics
The same year, Keleti released a memoir entitled ‘The Three Lives of an Olympic Champion’.
In 2015 she moved back to Hungary.
On September 8, 2023, Keleti surpassed water polo player Sandor Tarics as the oldest-ever Olympic champion at 102 years and 241 days.
Keleti would celebrate her 104th birthday on January 9.
“Agnes Keleti, a five-time Olympic champion gymnast, the Athlete of the Nation, Hungary’s female athlete with the most Olympic medals, and the world’s oldest five-ring gold medalist, died Thursday morning at the age of 103. ‘ reads a statement from the Hungarian Olympic Committee.
‘Agnes Keleti is, among other things, the deceased of the Hungarian Olympic Committee. The MOB extends its condolences to the family and the gymnastics community.”