Agnes Keleti, the world’s oldest Olympic champion and Holocaust survivor, has passed away at 103 in a Budapest hospital, days before her 104th birthday.
Born in 1921 in Budapest, Keleti’s extraordinary life was marked by resilience and triumph. Barred from sports in 1940 due to her Jewish background, she survived the Holocaust using false documents and trained in secret while hiding. Her father and other family members perished in Auschwitz, but her mother and sister were saved by Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg.
Keleti won 10 Olympic gymnastics medals, including five golds, competing after the age of 30. Following the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, she settled in Israel, where she married, raised two children, and coached the national gymnastics team.
Her legacy as Hungary’s most decorated gymnast and a symbol of perseverance endures. “It was worth doing something well in life,” she reflected before her 100th birthday.