A Holocaust survivor and oldest Olympic medal winner has died at the age of 103.
Agnes Keleti died Thursday morning in Budapest after being hospitalized with pneumonia on Christmas Day, the Hungarian state news agency reported.
Considered one of the most successful Jewish Olympic athletes, Ms. Keleti won 10 medals in gymnastics, including five gold, for Hungary at the 1952 Helsinki Games and at the 1956 Melbourne Games.
Celebrating his centenary, he said: “These 100 years seemed like 60 to me. I live well. And I love life. “It’s great that she’s still healthy.”
Born Agnes Klein in 1921 in Budapest, her career was interrupted by World War II and the cancellation of the 1940 and 1944 Olympic Games.
Keleti was kicked off her gymnastics team in 1941 because of her Jewish ancestry.
She later hid in the Hungarian countryside, where she survived the Holocaust by assuming a false identity and working as a domestic servant.
His mother and sister survived the war with the help of the famous Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, but his father and other relatives died in the Auschwitz concentration camp.
More than half a million Hungarian Jews were murdered in Nazi death camps and by Hungarian Nazi collaborators during the war.
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After the war, Keleti was unable to compete at the 1948 London Olympics due to an ankle injury.
She finally made her Olympic debut at the 1952 Helsinki Games at the age of 31, winning a gold medal in the floor exercise, as well as one silver and two bronze medals.
In 1956, she became the most successful athlete at the Melbourne Olympics, winning four gold and two silver medals.
Mrs. Keleti at 99 years old with her son Rafael. Photo: AP
While she was becoming the oldest gold medalist in gymnastics history at age 35 in Melbourne, the Soviet Union invaded Hungary following a failed anti-Soviet uprising.
Ms Keleti remained in Australia and sought political asylum.
He then emigrated to Israel the following year and went on to coach and coach the Israeli Olympic gymnastics team until the 1990s.
