Ágnes Keleti, a notable Holocaust survivor and the oldest living Olympic medalist, has passed away at the age of 103.
Her death occurred on Thursday morning in Budapest, as reported by the Hungarian state news agency. Just days before her passing, she was admitted to the hospital in critical condition due to pneumonia on December 25.
Keleti’s remarkable athletic career included a total of 10 Olympic medals in gymnastics, with five of those being gold, which she earned representing Hungary during the 1952 Helsinki Games and the 1956 Melbourne Games. Despite her deeply personal losses during the Holocaust, including the death of her father and several family members, she rose to become one of the most celebrated Jewish athletes in Olympic history.
Reflecting on her life as she approached her milestone 100th birthday, Keleti expressed, “These 100 years felt to me like 60. I live well. And I love life. It’s great that I’m still healthy.”
Born in 1921 in Budapest under the name Ágnes Klein, her promising gymnastics career faced interruption due to World War II, which also led to the cancellation of the Olympic Games in 1940 and 1944. In 1941, her Jewish heritage forced her removal from the gymnastics team, and she was compelled to live in hiding in the countryside of Hungary, where she managed to survive the Holocaust by adopting a false identity and working as a maid.
While her mother and sister survived the war with the aid of the famed Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, Keleti’s father and other family members were tragically killed at Auschwitz, contributing to the grim fate of over half a million Hungarian Jews executed in Nazi death camps or by local collaborators.
Following the war, Keleti aimed to compete in the 1948 London Olympics; however, a last-minute ankle injury thwarted her aspirations.
In 1952, she made her Olympic debut at the Helsinki Games at the age of 31, achieving victory in the floor exercise and earning a silver and two bronze medals. During the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, she became the standout athlete by winning four gold and two silver medals, solidifying her legacy in Olympic gymnastics.
At 35 years old during the Melbourne Games, she became the oldest gold medalist in gymnastics history, even as political turmoil erupted in Hungary due to the Soviet invasion following a failed anti-Soviet uprising. Choosing to remain in Australia, Keleti sought political asylum and subsequently immigrated to Israel the following year. She dedicated many years to coaching the Israeli Olympic gymnastics team until the 1990s, leaving a lasting impact on the sport.
