Five-time Olympic Champion gymnast Ágnes Keleti has turned 100. The oldest living Olympic Champion is also the most successful representative of Hungarian gymnastics: the gymnast, coach, university professor, international sports judge and Hungarian Olympic Committee Honorary Member won 10 Olympic medals besides her World Championships triumph. IOC President Thomas Bach greeted the Hungarian sports legend on the phone, while HOC President Krisztián Kulcsár and Secretary General Bálint Vékássy personally conveyed their best wishes to Ágnes Keleti.
Keleti, born on 9 January 1921 to Jewish parents, was part of the Hungarian Olympic Team in 1948, although she did not compete due to injury. Four years later however, she won 1 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze medals in Helsinki. Then she went on to win 4 gold and 2 silver medals at the age of 35 at the Melbourne 1956 Games, the last stage in her Olympic career. At the 1954 World Championships in Rome, she collected 1 medal from each colour. The world’s oldest living Olympic Champion proved her athletic prowess in both individual and team events.
The Hungarian sports icon is the 4th most successful Hungarian Olympian, behind only the 6-time Olympic Champion fencers Rudolf Kárpáti and Pál Kovács and 7-time Olympic Champion fencer Aladár Gerevich.
Following the Melbourne Olympic Games, she moved to Australia, then to Israel. From the end of the 50s onward, Keleti was a defining character of Israeli gymnastics, worked as a club coach, played an important role in the life of the Israeli University of Physical Education and led a sports school among other things. In addition, she was an international sports judge, and, for a short period of time, a coach of the Italian national gymnastics team.
“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. Out of the 177 Hungarian Olympic triumphs she played part in 5, making her one of the most successful Hungarian Olympian and 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. The 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. Us Hungarians, the gymnastics community and the Olympic Movement are very proud of her”, HOC President Krisztián Kulcsár lauded Ágnes Keleti.
Ágnes Keleti received several awards in Hungary and Israel alike. She was also inducted into the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame (2001) and the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame (2002). The Hungarian Olympic Committee awarded her the golden ring (1995) and the Order of Merit (2003).
“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”, confessed Keleti. Even at 100 she emphasizes it is amazing to live, a statement that characterizes her joie de vivre attitude.
“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”, said the centenarian who enjoys perfect health.
(Hungarian Olympic Committee, photo: HOC/Péter Szalmás)