Ágnes Keleti, the world’s oldest ever Olympic champion, passes away aged 103
She seemed eternal to me…, not only because she was approaching her 104th birthday, but also because she filled these century-plus years with such vitality.
Ágnes Keleti started her gymnastics career relatively late, as a tiny and fragile angel. She won her first Hungarian championship title at the age of nearly twenty, then another forty-six, followed by seven team championship golds in the country.
BORN TO BE A GYMNAST It seemed Keleti was born to be a gymnast, although she had long wanted to be a cellist and was also very talented at it – as we got to know her story in depth in Kata Oláh’s beautiful, internationally award-winning, extremely intimate documentary film, which presents Ágnes Keleti’s life in detail from a historical perspective. It was a huge achievement when this film won a special recognition prize in the history and sport category of the AIPS Sport Media Awards in 2023, because through this feat we Hungarians also got a little recognition.
I saw in Keleti not only a historical hero, but also a living statue of the spirit of life. For me, Aunt Ági – as we often call someone close to us – was my gymnastic hero from the time I was a little gymnast. She was a role model of perseverance, courage and diligence who, I remember from old newsreel footage of my childhood, looked taut, strong, yet lithe.
Zsuzsa Csisztu and Ágnes Keleti in 2021
OLYMPIC CHAMPION She was flexible enough in her splits and bridges at the waist, and was a champion figure who could reach athletic heights that, as our conversations in training camp revealed, we could never achieve. And her enviable medal collection could have been even richer had she not missed the 1948 Olympics due to a torn ligament. The five-time Olympic champion gymnast, who won ten Olympic medals and was also a world champion, was the most successful Hungarian competitor of all time in her sport, and had such a passion for it that she was able to train in the midst of the bullet holes of the Second World War, until she was forced to go into hiding with false papers because of her Jewish origins and persecution.
A PIONEER She was one of the pioneers of modern women’s gymnastics, already combining the sport’s astonishing acrobatic and yet very characteristic artistic traits. Not only was she a mainstay of the gold medal-winning team portable routine at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, but she was also capable of performing on the uneven bar, beam and floor with a range of innovative and revolutionary moves of the time.
QUEST FOR PERFECTION She took not only this quest for perfection but also her inexhaustible love of gymnastics with her to Israel when she settled in the Middle East in 1957 to establish gymnastics as a college teacher and coach, while also training as an international referee. She coached in Israeli clubs from 1983 to 1988, and it was then that I first met her at a famous Isreali training camp. She was always considered a creative woman who built a genre from scratch that became successful in several gymnastics fields in Israel. She has always been surrounded by an amazing force, which has not diminished even in her old age: in 2021, when we celebrated her 100th birthday, her inexhaustible energy made us throw up our right legs in the aisle of the National Theatre for a funny photo together.
Dear Agnes! You may not get the biggest applause any more at the next Athlete of the Year gala in Budapest in the Operahouse, but you’ll be with us in spirit – you’ll be immortal for us!
