Ágnes Keleti, a Holocaust survivor who became the world's oldest living Olympic champion and later shaped Israel's gymnastics team, died Thursday in Budapest at age 103.
The legendary Jewish athlete, who captured 10 Olympic medals—the most by any Jew except swimmer Marc Spitz—including five golds for Hungary, was hospitalised with pneumonia on Christmas Day. Her journey from Nazi persecution to Olympic glory made her one of the most inspiring Jewish sports figures of the 20th century.
"These 100 years felt to me like 60," Keleti told AP before her 100th birthday. "I live well. And I love life. It's great that I'm still healthy."
Agnes Keleti in 2016 at 95 years old (Getty Images)
Born as Ágnes Klein in Budapest in 1921, she faced devastating persecution during World War II. The Nazi-allied Hungarian regime forced her off the national gymnastics team in 1941 because she was Jewish. She survived the Holocaust by purchasing and using an identity paper of a Christian girl and working as a maid in the Hungarian countryside.
While her mother and sister survived through the protection of Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, her father and other family members perished at Auschwitz, among more than half a million Hungarian Jews murdered in German death camps and by Hungarian Nazi collaborators.
After the war, Keleti rebuilt her gymnastics career. Though an ankle injury prevented her from competing in the 1948 London Olympics, she triumphed at the 1952 Helsinki Games at age 31, securing gold in floor exercise along with silver and two bronze medals. Her greatest achievement came at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, where at 35—the oldest gymnastics gold medalist in history—she dominated the competition with four golds and two silvers.
While Keleti reached the pinnacle of Olympic success in Melbourne, the Soviet Union invaded Hungary following an unsuccessful anti-Soviet uprising. She sought asylum in Australia before immigrating to Israel in 1957, where she dedicated decades to training Israel's Olympic gymnastics team through the 1990s.
Keleti taught physical education at Tel Aviv University, and for 34 years at the Wingate Institute for Physical Education and Sports south of Netanya.
