The oldest living Olympic medalist - Agnes Keleti - has died at the age of 103. The Hungarian was a Holocaust survivor and won 10 medals in gymnastics for her country, five of which were golds. She sadly passed away on Thursday morning in Budapest after being admitted to hospital with pneumonia on Christmas Day.
She was born in the Hungarian capital in 1921 and saw her career bought to a halt by the second World War, which led to the cancellation of the Olympics in 1940 and 1944. Her Jewish ancestry saw her forced off her gymnastics team in 1941 and she went into hiding in the Hungarian countryside. Keleti resumed her gymnastics career after the war and was set to compete in the 1948 Olympics in London until she suffered an ankle injury.
She made her belated debut in the Games four years later in Helsinki - where she won gold, silver and two bronzes. In 1956, Keleti became the most successful athlete at the Olympics in Melbourne, winning four gold and two silver medals. Her success in Australia also meant she became the oldest gold medalist in gymnastics history at the age of 35.
"Agnes Keleti is the greatest gymnast produced by Hungary, but one whose life and career were intertwined with the politics of her country and her religion," the International Olympic Committee said in a profile on its website. Keleti also survived the Holocaust by assuming a false identity and working as a maid. Her mother and sister also survived the war with the help of famed Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, however her father was killed at Auschwitz.
