Agnes Keleti, the world’s oldest Olympic champion and a Holocaust survivor, has passed away at the age of 103.
She died on Thursday at a hospital in Budapest, Hungary, following complications from pneumonia.
Her death was confirmed by her press official, Tamas Roth, after local sports daily *Nemzeti Sport* first reported the news.
Keleti’s son, Rafael Biro-Keleti, had earlier expressed hope that the family would celebrate her 104th birthday together on January 9. “We pray for her. She has great vitality,” he had said last week when her health began to decline.
Agnes Keleti was born on January 9, 1921, in Budapest as Agnes Klein. Her life story was one of remarkable resilience, overcoming immense challenges to become Hungary’s most successful gymnast.
Keleti won ten Olympic medals, including five golds, all after turning 30, competing against younger athletes. She secured her first gold at the Helsinki Olympics in 1952 and continued her winning streak in Melbourne in 1956.
Despite her athletic achievements, Keleti often said her motivation was to travel outside communist Hungary rather than seek glory. “I was competing not because I liked it, but because I wanted to see the world,” she told AFP in 2016.
During World War II, Keleti faced life-threatening dangers due to her Jewish background. Barred from sports in 1940, she lived in hiding after Nazi Germany occupied Hungary in 1944.
Keleti escaped deportation to Auschwitz by using false identity documents and worked as a maid while secretly training by the river Danube. Her father and other relatives were killed in Auschwitz, though her mother and sister were saved by Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg.
After the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, Keleti did not return to Hungary, which was under Soviet control after a failed uprising. She relocated to Israel, where she married Hungarian sports teacher Robert Biro in 1959 and had two children.
In Israel, Keleti worked as a physical education teacher and coach for the national gymnastics team. She returned to Hungary in 1983 for the World Gymnastics Championships and later moved back permanently in 2015.
Agnes Keleti’s legacy as a gymnast and survivor continues to inspire many. Reflecting on her life shortly before her 100th birthday, she said, “It was worth doing something well in life, considering the attention I have received. I get the shivers when I see all the articles written about me.”
