Worlds Oldest Living Gold Medallist Agnes Keleti Dies At 103

Five-time Olympic champion Hungarian gymnast, Agnes Keleti, the worlds oldest living Olympic gold medallist and a survivor of the persecution of Jews in World War Two, died at the age of 103 on Thursday, the Hungarian Olympic Committee HOC said.

Born as Agnes Klein in Budapest on 9 January 1921, Keleti joined the National Gymnastics Association in 1938 and won her first Hungarian Championship in 1940, only to be banned from all sports activities that year because of her Jewish origin.

Agnes Keleti is the greatest gymnast produced by Hungary, but one whose life and career were intertwined with the politics of her country and her religion, the International Olympic Committee said in a profile on its website.

The HOC said Keleti escaped deportation to Nazi death camps, where hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews were killed, by hiding in a village south of Budapest with false papers.

Her father and several relatives died in the Auschwitz death camp.