Hungary to honour world’s oldest Olympic Champion Ágnes Keleti with upcoming funeral service – details

Five-time Olympic champion gymnast Ágnes Keleti, the Sportswoman of the Nation, will be laid to rest in Hungary. One of the greatest champions will be buried on her birthday, 9 January.

The funeral service will take place at the Israelite Cemetery in Kozma Street, beginning at noon. According to the obituary sent to MTI on Tuesday, Jewish tradition requires men to wear headgear. Mourners are requested to bring a flower to the service as a mark of respect.

Ágnes Keleti’s career

Born on 9 January 1920, Ágnes Keleti—who passed away on 2 January 2025—was Hungary’s most decorated female Olympic medallist, the world’s oldest living female athlete, and the world’s oldest-ever five-time Olympic gold medallist. She was a Holocaust survivor. Born into a Jewish family in Hungary, Keleti survived the Holocaust by going into hiding, adopting a false identity, and working as a maid—a testament to her resilience and determination.

In Helsinki in 1952, she won a gold medal in the artificial free (now known as the floor exercise), a silver medal in the combined team event, and bronze medals in the uneven bars and as part of the hand apparatus team. She reached the pinnacle of her career in 1956 in Melbourne, where she successfully defended her title in the floor exercise and won gold medals on the balance beam, uneven bars, and with the hand apparatus team, along with silver medals in the individual all-around and team all-around events. She became the most successful gymnast at the Games and remains the oldest woman to win an Olympic gold medal.