Ágnes Keleti
Ágnes Keleti | |
---|---|
HUN) | |
Club | Nemzeti TE Bp. Postás TF Haladás Újpesti TE |
Retired | 1958 |
Medal record | |
Spouse | Róbert Bíró |
Children | Dániel Rafael |
Ágnes Keleti (
Career
Keleti is
Keleti was considered a top prospect for the Hungarian team at the 1940 Olympics, but the escalation of World War II cancelled both the 1940 and the 1944 Games. She was expelled from her gymnastics club in 1941 for being a non-Aryan.[11] Keleti was forced to go into hiding to survive the war. Because she had heard a rumour married women were not taken to labour camps, she hastily married István Sárkány in 1944.[1] Sárkány was a Hungarian gymnast of the 1930s who achieved national titles and took part in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. They divorced in 1950. Keleti survived the war by purchasing and using an identity paper of a Christian girl and working as a maid in a small village. Her mother and sister went into hiding and were saved using Swiss protection papers issued by diplomat Carl Lutz and possibly also by Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg. Her father and other relatives were murdered by the Nazis by gassing in the Auschwitz concentration camp.[5][6][9][10][12][11] She managed to survive the Holocaust by hiding in the Hungarian countryside.[13] In the winter of 1944–45, during the Siege of Budapest by Soviet forces near the end of World War II, Keleti would in the morning collect bodies of those who had died and place them in a mass grave.[1]
After the war, Keleti played the
She continued training and competed at the Olympics for the first time at the age of 31 at the
Keleti emigrated to Israel in 1957, competing in the 1957 Maccabiah Games, and she was able to send for her mother and sister.[5][6][9][10][17] In 1959, she married Hungarian physical education teacher Robert Biro whom she met in Israel, and they had two sons, Daniel and Rafael.[18][1] Following her retirement from competition, Keleti worked as a physical education instructor at Tel Aviv University, and for 34 years at the Wingate Institute for Sports in Netanya.[1]
She also coached and worked with Israel's national gymnastics team well into the 1990s.[2][5][10] Since 2015, she has lived in Budapest.[3]
Keleti has been the oldest Hungarian Olympic champion since Sándor Tarics died on 21 May 2016.[20][21] She became the oldest living Olympic champion when Lydia Wideman died on 13 April 2019.[22] She celebrated her 100th birthday in January 2021.[2] She became the longest-lived Olympic champion ever on 7 August 2023, breaking the record previously held by Tarics.[23]
Awards and honours
- Keleti was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1981,[5] the Hungarian Sports Hall of Fame in 1991,[6] the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame in 2001,[24] and the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2002.[10]
- Keleti was named Hungary's 12 "Athlete's of the Nation" in 2004[25]
- In 1982, she was awarded the Herzl Prize for sports.
- Asteroid M.P.C. 89086).[27]
- In 2017, she was announced laureate of the Israel Prize in the field of sports.[28]
See also
- List of Soviet and Eastern Bloc defectors
- List of Jews in sports
- List of multiple Olympic gold medalists
- List of multiple Olympic gold medalists at a single Games
- List of Olympic female artistic gymnasts for Hungary
- List of Olympic medal leaders in women's gymnastics
- List of multiple Summer Olympic medalists
References
- ^ a b c d e Kordova, Shoshana (4 July 2005). "Not always a soft landing". Haaretz. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
- ^ a b c d Spike, Justin (9 January 2021). "'I love life': Oldest living Olympic champion turns 100". CBC Sports. The Associated Press. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
- ^ a b c "Oldest living Olympic champion Agnes Keleti to turn 100". France 24. 2020-12-24. Retrieved 2020-12-30.
- ^ "Heroes - Trailblazers of the Jewish People". Beit Hatfutsot.
- ^ a b c d e f "Agnes Keleti" International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame
- ^ a b c d e "Agnes Keleti profile" Jews in Sports
- ^ Heller, Aaron (August 14, 2012). "10-medal Olympian quietly living her golden years in Israel". The Times of Israel. Retrieved August 14, 2012.
- ISBN 9781903900888. Retrieved April 13, 2015.
- ^ a b c d "Whatever Happened to Agnes Keleti?" Archived 2012-10-10 at the Wayback Machine Gymnastic Greats, December 22, 1999
- ^ a b c d e "Agnes Keleti, Honoree" International Gymnastics Hall of Fame, 2002
- ^ a b c Nike is a Goddess: The History of Women in Sports - Google Books
- ^ a b c d e Historical Dictionary of the Olympic Movement - Bill Mallon, Jeroen Heijmans - Google Books
- ^ "10 Jews that have Reached the Highest Achievements in Sports". Beit Hatfutsot. 2017-06-27. Retrieved 2020-03-12.
- ^ XVI Olympiad: Melbourne/Stockholm 1956, Squaw Valley 1960 - Carl Posey - Google Books
- ^ Bitton-Jackson, Livia (22 July 2012). "Agnes Keleti: The Foundation Stone Of Gymnastics In Israel". The Jewish Press. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
- ^ ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2021-01-11.
- ^ Arbesfeld, Atara (15 August 2012). "One of World's Most Decorated Olympic Gymnasts Lives In Israel, Still Does Her Splits". The Algemeiner. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
- ^ Yiddishe Mamas: The Truth About the Jewish Mother - Marnie Winston-Macauley - Internet Archive
- ^ Source Israel National Photo Collection via Wikimedia Commons
- ^ "Ezt tényleg nem hisszük el: remek formában van a 96 éves Keleti Ágnes" (in Hungarian). szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu. 9 June 2017. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
- ^ "Elhunyt Tarics Sándor, a legidősebb olimpiai bajnok - Népszava" (in Hungarian). NÉPSZAVA online. 25 February 2017. Retrieved 25 December 2017.
- ^ Piilonen, Teijo (13 April 2019). "Maailman vanhimman olympiavoittajan traaginen historia: natsit veivät isän Auschwitziin". Ilta-Sanomat (in Finnish). Retrieved 14 April 2019.
- ^ "Keleti Ágnes a mindenkori legidősebb olimpiai bajnok!". Nemzeti Sport (in Hungarian). 7 August 2023. Retrieved 7 August 2023.
- ^ Day by Day in Jewish Sports History - Bob Wechsler - Google Books
- ^ Gorondi, Pablo (9 January 2020). "Oldest living Olympic champ, a Holocaust survivor, turns 99". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 2020-01-12.
- ^ "265594 Keletiagnes (2005 RS3)". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 5 September 2019.
- ^ "MPC/MPO/MPS Archive". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 5 September 2019.
- ^ "Holocaust survivor, 10-time Olympic medallist Agnes Keleti awarded Israel Prize". i24 News. February 15, 2017. Retrieved February 21, 2021.
External links
- Ágnes Keleti at the International Gymnastics Federation
- Ágnes Keleti at the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame
- Ágnes Keleti at Olympics.com
- Ágnes Keleti at Olympedia
- Ágnes Keleti at the Magyar Olimpiai Bizottság (in Hungarian) (English translation)
- List of competitive results at gymn-forum.net
- "The Forgotten Olympians" at the Wayback Machine (archived September 8, 2004)