Hungarian Ágnes Keleti became the oldest Olympic champion of all time

Five-time Olympic champion Ágnes Keleti has been the world’s oldest living Olympic champion since April 2019, and as of Friday, no other Olympic champion has lived to be as old as she.

Childhood hardships

Ágnes Keleti turned 102 years and 242 days old on Friday. On this occasion, she was congratulated by Ádám Schmidt, State Secretary for Sport, and Tamás Deutsch and Sándor Wladár, two Vice-Presidents of the Hungarian Olympic Committee.

Before Keleti, the previous record holder was also Hungarian: Sándor Tarics, who died in San Francisco in 2016 at the age of 102 years and 241 days.

Keleti, born Klein in 1921, was selected for the national team in 1938, but she was soon expelled due to the Jewish laws. She missed the 1940 and 1944 Olympics because of the war. She survived by changing her name to Piroska Juhász even if it cost all her money to acquire the documents. She was working as a maid while her father was taken away to a concentration camp and died amid horrific conditions.

For a while, Keleti toyed with the idea of becoming an Oriental cellist, but she couldn’t give up on gymnastics. In 1945, she returned to the sport, but an injury prevented her from competing in the 1948 Olympics.

Endless successes

In 1952, at the age of 31, she qualified for her first Olympics, winning the floor event and finishing fourth on beam. Her next Olympics were in Australia, where her brother immigrated.

In Melbourne, she won three gold medals, defending her title on floor, and also took first place on beam and high bar. Keleti did not return home but settled in Israel. She visited her motherland again only in 1983, and eventually moved back in the 1990s.

The former gymnast still works out every day. She eats a lot of fruit and chocolate, watches gymnastics without glasses and looks at the new talents with a critical eye, telex.hu reports.

A documentary film is also being made about Keleti’s life, in which she reflects on the future ahead instead of her difficult past. On her 100th birthday, she also showed off her brilliant sense of humour. She said that the secret of her long life is that she avoids looking in the mirror, so she can imagine herself the way and the age she wants to be.

Another famous anecdote has it that the Olympic medalist was once asked what place she would like to visit next since she’s also known for her passion for travelling. “To heaven, but that can wait,” was her witty reply.