Agnes Keleti, the world’s oldest Olympic champion, has died at the age of 103 it has been announced.
Keleti had been hospitalised in Budapest last week with pneumonia, with the former gymnast reportedly admitted on Christmas Day.
‘We pray for her, she has a great vitality’ her son, Rafael Biro-Keleti told Hungarian media at the time.
Her press official Tamas Roth confirmed to AFP that Keleti had died on Thursday in hospital.
Keleti was one of Hungary’s most successful Olympians, winning 10 medals in gymnastics across the Helsinki 1952 and Melbourne 1956 Olympics.
She claimed the floor title in the Finnish capital, before winning the uneven bars, balance beam, floor and team event four years later.
Agnes Keleti, the world’s oldest Olympic champion, has died at the age of 103
Keleti was a five-time Olympic gold medallist and earned 10 medals at the Games in total
She made her first Olympics at the age of 31 due to the Second World War delaying her debut
Keleti had been born as Agnes Klein in Budapest in 1921 and took up gymnastics at the age of four.
She joined the VAC Sports Club, the only Jewish club in Budapest, and went on to claim the national title as a 16-year-old.
Her Olympic debut was delayed due to the cancellation of the 1940 and 1944 Games due to the Second World War.
Keleti had been expelled from her gymnastics team in 1941 due to her Jewish ancestry.
She assumed a false identity and worked as a maid during the war, with Keleti, her mother and sister surviving the Holocaust with the help of Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg.
Keleti’s father and other relatives, however, died at the Auschwitz concentration camp.
They were among 550,000 Hungarian Jews killed at Auschwitz and other camps.
Keleti qualified for the 1984 Olympics after the war, but was prevented from competing due to an ankle injury.
Keleti, left, was the most successful athlete at the Melbourne 1956 Olympic Games
Keleti survived the Holocaust and became one of the most decorated Jewish athletes in history
Her Olympic debut eventually came in 1952 in Helsinki at the age of 31, where she claimed one gold, a silver and two bronze medals.
Keleti became the oldest gymnastics gold medallist four years later in Melbourne.
She was the most successful athlete at the Games, winning four gold and two silver medals.
Keleti remained in Australia post-Olympics after the Soviet Union invaded Hungary during the Games, joining 44 other athletes from the Hungarian delegation in seeking political asylum.
The Olympic champion moved to Israel in 1957, where she met her husband Robert Biro and had two sons, Daniel and Rafael.
Keleti played a key role in developing Israeli gymnastics, serving as coach between 1958 and 1980, while she also helped the Italian team prepare for the 1960 Olympics.
She also taught physical education at the Orde Wingate Institute in Israel and served as an international judge gymnastics judge, and only chose to retire at the age of 75.
Keleti was inducted into the International Gymnastics Federation Hall of Fame in 2002.
Keleti became the oldest ever Olympic champion in 2023, surpassing Sandor Tarics
The same year saw Keleti release a memoir titled ‘The Three Lives of an Olympic Champion’.
She moved back to Hungary in 2015.
On September 8, 2023, Keleti surpassed water polo player Sandor Tarics as the oldest ever Olympic champion at 102 years and 241 days.
Keleti was due to celebrate her 104th birthday on January 9.
‘Agnes Keleti, a five-time Olympic champion gymnast, the Athlete of the Nation, Hungary’s female athlete with the most Olympic medals, and the oldest five-ring gold medalist in the world, passed away at the age of 103 on Thursday morning,’ a Hungarian Olympic Committee statement read.
‘Agnes Keleti is, among others, the Hungarian Olympic Committee’s own deceased. The MOB expresses its condolences to the family and the gymnastic community.’
