As of Friday, Ágnes Keleti is the oldest lived Olympic champion in the world, and also the third oldest living Olympian.
Born on January 9, 1921, the five-time Olympic champion Ágnes Keleti, the Athlete of the Nation, is the oldest living Hungarian Olympic champion since the death of water polo player Sándor Tarics on May 21, 2016, and as of Friday the oldest living Olympic champion in the world, because Tarics lived 102 years and 241 days, which was surpassed by the most successful Hungarian gymnast.
On the occasion of the unusual “crossing of a milestone”, Ágnes Keleti was greeted at her home on Thursday afternoon by Ádám Schmidt, the state secretary responsible for sports, and Sándor Wladár and Tamás Deutsch, the vice presidents of the Hungarian Olympic Committee (MOB). Keleti’s former club, UTE (the predecessor and successor of Újpesti Dózsa), was represented at the ceremony by Judit Juhász, director of the gymnastics department, Péter Tibolya, board member, and Róbert Tahon, legal director. Ádám Jusztin, president of Makkabi VAC, sports director of Makkabi Europe also appeared.
“Ági is a living role model, an icon. She gained enormous joy as an athlete with her successes, and now, at the age of 102, she is still able to set a world record, which not many people can do. That’s why we’re here, that’s why we thank her,”
– Ádám Schmidt told MTI.
Ágnes Keleti emphasized that she still does gymnastics every day, eats a lot of fruit and chocolate, watches gymnastics broadcasts on the Internet without glasses, and looks critically at the exercises.
By the way, the oldest living Olympian, or Olympic participant, was the Uruguayan sailing competitor Félix Sienra, who participated in the 1948 pentathlon games and died at the age of 107 years and 9 days.
(MTI)
Main picture: Ágnes Keleti, five-time Olympic champion gymnast, and Athlete of the Nation at her home in Budapest on September 7, 2023. The 102-year-old Olympian was greeted on this day for the fact that he became the oldest living Olympic champion in the world. MTI/Zoltán Balogh
