The oldest Olympic champion from Hungary Agnes Keleti has passed away. The world-famous gymnast was 103 years old.
This is reported by AFP.
Keleti died on January 2 in a Budapest hospital. She had been hospitalized last week with pneumonia. The athleteʼs son Rafael Biro-Keleti told the press at the time that the family wanted to celebrate her 104th birthday on January 9 together.
Agnes became Hungaryʼs most successful gymnast. The woman took up sports primarily to break out of the Iron Curtain of the communist-ruled country.
“I participated [in the competition] not because I liked it, but because I wanted to see the world,” she told the publication in 2016.
In 1940, Keleti was banned from participating in sports activities because of her Jewish origin. After the occupation of Hungary by Nazi Germany in March 1944, she escaped deportation to a camp. The gymnast received false documents in exchange for all her belongings and posed as a young Christian woman. Her father and some relatives were killed in Auschwitz, while the championʼs mother and sister were saved.
Keleti won ten Olympic medals before the age of 30, ahead of younger competitors. She won gold five times, including in Helsinki in 1952 and Melbourne in 1956.
She later settled in Israel, where she worked as a physical education teacher, coached the national team, and started a family. Agnes returned to her homeland in 2015.
For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine please follow us on X.