Olympic Champion Passes Away at the Age of 103 Years

Five-time Olympic champion gymnast Ágnes Keleti, the Sportswoman of the Nation, Hungary's female athlete with the most Olympic medals, the world's oldest living five-time Olympic gold medalist and the oldest ever five-time Olympic gold medalist, passed away at the age of 103 years on Thursday morning.

Ágnes Keleti – who would have celebrated her 104th birthday next Thursday – won a gold medal at the Helsinki Summer Olympics in 1952 in free-standing exercise (now the floor), a silver medal in the team event, a bronze medal on the uneven parallel bars and as a member of the hand apparatus team. She reached the peak of her career in Melbourne in 1956, defending her title on floor, winning gold on beam, uneven parallel bars and as a member of the hand apparatus team, and silver medals in individual all-around and team events. She became the most successful gymnast at the Games and the oldest woman to win a gold medal.

With ten Olympic medals, she is second in Hungary only to saber fencer Aladár Gerevich (10 medals/7 golds) and fifth most successful Hungarian Olympian of all times with five gold medals. On Wednesday last week, she was hospitalized with heart failure and respiratory problems and she was diagnosed with pneumonia. Her death made Charles Coste the oldest living Olympic champion, the French cyclist having won gold at the 1948 Games.