Oldest living Olympic medalist, Holocaust survivor

Ágnes Keleti, the oldest living Olympic medalist and Holocaust survivor, died Thursday morning.

According to Olympics.com, the 103-year-old Hungarian died in Budapest. Keleti died after being rushed to hospital in a critical condition with pneumonia on Christmas Day.

Keleti won a total of 10 Olympic medals in gymnastics, including four medals for Hungary at the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki, Finland, and six medals at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia. Before competing in the Olympics, she was a survivor of the Holocaust, although not all of her family survived.

“You have to love life and always look on the bright side,” Keleti said in an interview with Olympics.com in 2020.

Following news of her death, tributes poured in from the world of sport.

“Forever remembered”

Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee, honored Keleti in a social media post on Thursday morning.

“Her inspiring story will be remembered forever. Ágnes Keleti demonstrated the power of strong determination and courage to overcome tragedy when, as the daughter of a Jewish family, she survived the Holocaust and won 10 Olympic medals after World War II, five of them gold,” he said.

Who was Agnes Keleti?

Born in Budapest in 1921, Keleti was a bright young gymnast in Hungary, according to Olympics.com. At 16, she won the country’s national gymnastics championships, but the outbreak of World War II turned her world upside down.

After the occupation of Hungary by Nazi Germany, Keleti, of Jewish descent, was forced to go into hiding and assume the identity of a Christian maid. According to Olympics.com, her mother and sister also survived the Holocaust. But her father and other relatives didn’t make it and were murdered in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

She was originally scheduled to make her Olympic debut at the 1948 London Olympics, but a ligament injury ended her chances of taking part. The 1952 Helsinki Games were her first, when Keleti was 31 years old.

Keleti won a total of ten metal medals at two different Olympics, winning five gold medals in each.

Oldest living Olympic medalist, Holocaust survivor

ByAmelia Journalton

By Amelia Journalton

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