A week before her 104th birthday, Ágnes Keleti, a five-time Olympic champion gymnast and honorary titleholder of “Athlete of the Nation,” passed away. The Hungarian sports legend won a gold medal on the floor at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics and claimed four gold medals at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. Keleti Ágnes had been recognized for years as the world’s oldest living Olympic champion. Even in the final years of her long life, she remained active and cheerful.

Ágnes Keleti was born on January 9, 1921, in Budapest under the name Ágnes Klein. She debuted on the national team at the age of 18 and won her first Hungarian championship medal in 1940. During the Holocaust, she was in constant danger due to her Jewish heritage and survived by hiding in the countryside with false papers.

She was part of the national team for the 1948 Summer Olympics but could not compete due to a torn ligament. In 1949, she won four gold medals at the University World Championships. At the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, she became the Olympic champion on the floor and earned one silver and two bronze medals. In 1954, she won a world championship title on uneven bars. At the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, she claimed three individual gold medals (on floor, beam, and uneven bars) and one with the hand apparatus team. Shortly after the 1956 Olympics, she settled in Australia and then moved to Israel in 1957, where she became a university professor and gymnastics coach.

In Israel, Keleti was instrumental in establishing the national gymnastics program. From 1958 to 1980, she served as the coach of the Israeli gymnastics team and, briefly, as the coach for the Italian team from 1959 to 1960. Between 1983 and 1988, she coached at various Israeli clubs. From 1957 to 1980, she taught at Israel’s College of Physical Education and also worked as an international gymnastics judge.

From 1990 onwards, Keleti spent increasing amounts of time in her homeland, and in her final years, she lived almost exclusively in Hungary.

Source: MTI