The five-time Olympic champion gymnast, the Athlete of the Nation, the oldest Olympic champion in the world, died at the age of one hundred and three.
Ágnes Keleti was born as Ágnes Klein on January 9, 1921 in Budapest, the family later renamed Keleti.
From 1937, Ágnes Keleti played sports in the Budapest Fencing and Athletics Club, and from 1938 in the National Gymnastics Association. He became a member of the national team in 1939 and won his first Hungarian championship in 1940, but due to his Jewish origin, he was banned from all sports activities that year.
He managed to get through the end of the Second World War, the period after the German occupation of Hungary on March 19, 1944, with false papers under a pseudonym in Szalkszentmárton, where he maintained his stamina by running. His father and several family members died in the Auschwitz concentration camp, his mother and brother were rescued from Budapest by the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg.
After the Second World War, he appeared in the colors of Budapesti Postás, TF DISZ from 1950 and TF Haladás, and Budapesti Dózsa between 1954 and 1956. In the meantime, he graduated from the College of Physical Education, where he became a teacher. Between 1947 and 1956, he was a 46-time Hungarian champion in various sports, including a ten-time individual composite Hungarian champion and a seven-time team champion. He won the eternal champion title, no one has won the gymnastics championship in Hungary more than him. In 1949, he won four gold medals, one silver and one bronze medal each at the World College Championships.
At the 1954 World Championships in Rome, he won both on the half-bar and with the apparatus team, and also collected a silver and a bronze medal.
In 1948, he made it to the London Olympics, but was unable to participate in the games because, unfortunately, he suffered a torn ankle ligament during one of the last training sessions. Four years later in Helsinki, at the age of thirty-one, he won a gold medal with his artistic free exercise (today: floor), a silver medal in the all-around team, a bronze medal in the half-bar and as a member of the apparatus team.
He reached the peak of his career in Melbourne in 1956: he defended his title on floor, won gold on beam, half beam and as a member of the apparatus team composed of Andrea Bodó, Ágnes Keleti, Alíz Kertész, Margit Korondi, Erzsébet Köteles, and Olga Tass, won silver medals in the individual all-around and team . She became the most successful competitor of the games, as well as the oldest gymnast to win a gold medal.
With ten Olympic medals and five gold medals, Ágnes Keleti is second only to Aladár Gerevich in the ranking of the most successful Hungarian athletes of all time, and she is also the Hungarian female athlete with the most Olympic medals and the most successful Hungarian gymnast.
Later, he also worked as a college teacher, coach, national team captain and competition judge in gymnastics. He did this in Israel and Hungary, and for a short time in Italy.
Among his many recognitions, in addition to his state awards, the Hungarian Olympic Committee's Olympic gold ring, honorary member with a medal of merit, Fair Play Lifetime Achievement Award, immortal of Hungarian gymnastics, member of the international hall of fame of female athletes, Lifetime Achievement Award of the Association of Hungarian Sports Journalists, Prima Primissima awardee; Honorary citizen of Újpest, Terézváros and Budapest, Athlete of the Nation. Kata Oláh made a film about him entitled Conquering time, the work won a special award from the International Association of Sports Journalists (AIPS) in 2023.
Ágnes Keleti died at the age of 103, the oldest Olympic champion.
The five-time Olympic champion gymnast became the oldest Olympic champion of all time on September 7, 2023, at the age of 102 years and 242 days, after surpassing water polo player Sándor Tarics.
With the death of Ágnes Keleti, the oldest living Olympic champion is the French cyclist Charles Coste, who won the gold medal at the 1948 Games.
Cover image: Deceased Ágnes Keleti
Source: National Sport
