Oldest living Olympic champ turns 100

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BUDAPEST, Hungary, Jan 9, (AP): For Agnes Keleti, the oldest living Olympic champion, the fondest memory of her remarkable 100 years is simply that she has lived through it all. Keleti winner of 10 Olympic medals in gymnastics – including five golds – celebrates her 100th birthday on Saturday in her native Budapest, punctuating a life of achievement, adventure, tragedy and perseverance which, she says, passed by in a flash.

“These 100 years felt to me like 60,” she said at a celebration in Budapest on the eve of her birthday. Leafing through a copy of a new book about her life – “The Queen of Gymnastics: 100 Years of Agnes Keleti” – her trademark modesty was on full display.

“‘The queen of gymnastics,’” she said, switching to English. And in Hungarian: “That’s an exaggeration.” Keleti, who was born Agnes Klein in 1921, had her illustrious career interrupted by World War II and the subsequent cancellation of the 1940 and 1944 Olympics.

Resuming her career after the war, Keleti was set to compete at the 1948 London Olympics but a last-minute ankle injury dashed her hopes. Four years later, she made her Olympic debut at the 1952 Helsinki Games at the age of 31, winning a gold medal in the fl oor exercise as well as a silver and two bronzes.

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