World
Ágnes Keleti, oldest living Olympic medal winner and Holocaust survivor, dies at 103
Oldest Olympic gold medalist Agnes Keleti dies at 103
Agnes Keleti, the world’s oldest living Olympic gold medalist and Holocaust survivor, has passed away at the age of 103.
unbranded – Sport
Ágnes Keleti, the oldest living Olympic medal winner and Holocaust survivor, died Thursday morning.
The 103-year-old Hungarian died in Budapest, according to Olympics.com. Keleti died after having been taken to a hospital in a critical condition with pneumonia on Christmas Day.
Keleti won a total of 10 Olympic medals in gymnastics, with in four medals for Hungary in the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki, Finland and six medals in the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia. Before competing in the Olympics, she was a survivor of the Holocaust, though not all her family survived.
“You’ve got to love life and always look at the good side,” Keleti told Olympics.com in a 2020 interview.
Following the news of her death, tributes came in from the sporting world.
‘Remembered forever’
Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee, honored Keleti in a social media post Thursday morning.
“She will be remembered forever for her inspirational story. Ágnes Keleti has demonstrated the power of strong determination and courage to overcome tragedy when she, born to a Jewish family, survived the Holocaust and went on to win ten Olympic medals after World War II, five of them Gold,” he said.
Who was Ágnes Keleti?
Born in 1921 in Budapest, Keleti was a bright young gymnast in Hungary, according to Olympics.com. At age 16, she won the country’s national gymnastics championships, but the outbreak of World War II threw her world upside down.
After Hungary was occupied by Nazi Germany, Keleti, of Jewish ancestry, had to go into hiding and assume the identity of a Christian maid. Her mother and sister survived the Holocaust as well, according to Olympics.com. But her father and other relatives did not make it, being killed at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
She was originally slated to make her Olympics debut at the 1948 Olympic Games in London, but a ligament injury derailed her chance to compete. The Helsinki Games in 1952 were her first, when Keleti was 31.
Keleti went on to win a total of 10 medals across two different Olympic Games, winning five golds each.
Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at fernando.cervantes@gannett.com and follow him on X @fern_cerv_.
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