The oldest surviving Olympic champion, Agnes Keleti, celebrated her 100th birthday on January 9. The Hungarian gymnast has won 10 Olympic medals, of which 5 of them are gold. Her athletic achievements are just a chapter of her amazing life story since Keleti is also a Holocaust survivor.
Keleti won her first national title at the age of 16. She was supposed to make the Hungarian team for the 1940 Olympic Games, yet those games were canceled due to World War II. She wasn’t able to compete in the Olympics until she was 31 years old, an age long past gymnasts prime as stated by the International Olympic Committee.
Featured Product
When a Student Couldn’t Pay Tuition Fees, Prison Inmates Rallied to Raise $32k to Help
In the prison system, crime and punishment go hand in hand. Crime and rehabilitation, while often cited as a goal of correctional facilities, is usually more elusive. That’s why when it does come about, it’s all the more meaningful. Not long ago, inmates at...
Choose Your News
Keleti was removed from her gymnastics club in Hungary for being Jewish in 1941. The International Olympic Committee said in a web post telling her amazing story. She worked as a maid by using a fake identity while her family was forced into hiding. Her father and some of her family members were among the 550,000 Hungarian Jews killed at Auschwitz and other camps.
Keleti began competing in gymnastics again after surviving the Holocaust. She won her first Central European Gymnastics Championship in 1947.
She continued to compete at the Helsinki Olympic Games in 1952 and then in Melbourne in 1956. She remained in Australia after the Melbourne games. She received political asylum when the Soviet Union invaded Hungary.
Later, she moved to Israel’s country and became the coach for the country’s women’s gymnastics team. According to the International Olympic Committee, Keleti was added to the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2002, being Hungary’s most-decorated female Olympian ever.
“The Queen of Gymnastics: 100 Years of Agnes Keleti,” a book about her life, was released this year to mark her milestone birthday. Yet, Keleti told the Associated Press that being called the queen of gymnastics is just an exaggeration.
Keleti spoke with the Associated Press about her full life at a celebration for her birthday. “These 100 years felt to me like 60,” she said.
“I love life; health is the essence. Without it, there is nothing.”
According to AP reports, Keleti doesn’t do full splits anymore, as per the doctor’s recent advice. And yet, there will always be a constant in Keleti’s life: the smile on her face.
“I live well, and it’s great that I am healthy, And I love life.”