Agnes Keleti blows out the candles. [Photo: Hungarian Olympic Committee]
By Philip Barker
Ágnes Keleti, the oldest living Olympic champion has celebrated her 100th birthday in Budapest where she received a congratulatory call from IOC President Thomas Bach who told her “We all admire not only your many Olympic medals and your Olympic achievements but how you mastered your life which was not easy all the time. All the best wishes on behalf of the entire Olympic Movement.”
Keleti was presented with a special cake to mark the milestone and recalled why she took up gymnastics. “I was really fond of music in my childhood, I played the cello. Due to my musicality, I looked for sports in which music plays a defining role. The combination of these two I found in gymnastics. I always gave it my best, always went the extra mile and never gave up, that may be the secret of my success. I am moved that I can spend my 100th birthday in the circle of loved ones and by being surrounded and respected by so many.” she said.
Hungarian Olympic Committee President Krisztián Kulcsár paid his own tribute. “Ágnes Keleti is one of a kind. She has been serving the Olympic Movement for over 80 years by making the most of everything she took on and is the most accomplished Hungarian female athlete. She felt the dark decades of National Socialism and Communism, the horrors of the Second World War and the ordeals of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 on her skin. She was forced to leave her home and despite everything, even in these sombre times, she kept her composure and human dignity. This doyenne of the international Olympic family serves as a role model for all of us not only through the life she led but with her ever-lasting active lifestyle, optimism and a love of life. Hungary, the gymnastics community and the Olympic Movement are very proud of her.”
Keleti won five Olympic gold medals in gymnastics despite many hardships in a career which was interrupted by the war when she was forced to flee Nazi persecution because of her Jewish faith. She was selected for the 1948 London Games but missed out through injury. By the time she competed at the Helsinki Olympics in 1952, she was already 31 years of age,but she won gold in the floor exercises and also bronze in the uneven bars as well as team silver in the all around and bronze in the portable apparatus.
In 1956 she won three further individual gold medals on the floor, uneven bars and beam and a team gold in the portable apparatus. She also won silver in the individual and team all around competitions. She later became a distinguished coach and judge in her sport.
Her haul of ten medals makes her Hungary’s most successful female Olympian. Only legendary fencers Aladár Gerevich., Rudolf Kárpáti and Pál Kovács have enjoyed more Olympic success for Hungary.
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