BUDAPEST, Hungary — Ágnes Keleti, a Holocaust survivor and the oldest living Olympic medal winner, has died at the age of 103. The news was reported on Thursday morning by the Hungarian state news agency, indicating that she was hospitalized with pneumonia before her passing on December 25.

During her illustrious career, Keleti earned a total of 10 Olympic medals in gymnastics for Hungary, including five golds, at the 1952 Helsinki Games and the 1956 Melbourne Games. She faced significant personal losses during the Holocaust, which inspired her to become one of the most successful Jewish Olympic athletes. “These 100 years felt to me like 60,” she expressed on the eve of her 100th birthday. “I live well. And I love life. It’s great that I’m still healthy” (source: AP News).

Born Ágnes Klein in 1921 in Budapest, her aspirations were thwarted by World War II and the cancellation of the 1940 and 1944 Olympics. In 1941, she was forced off her gymnastics team due to her Jewish heritage and subsequently went into hiding, where she survived the Holocaust by adopting a false identity and working as a maid. Her mother and sister survived with the help of the renowned Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, while her father and other relatives tragically perished in Auschwitz among the more than half a million Hungarian Jews killed during this period.

After the war, Keleti aimed to participate in the 1948 London Olympics, but a sudden ankle injury halted those plans. However, she made a triumphant Olympic debut at the age of 31 during the *1952 Helsinki Games*, winning a gold medal in the floor exercise, as well as a silver and two bronzes. She became the most decorated athlete at the *1956 Melbourne Olympics*, earning four gold and two silver medals.

At the age of 35, while becoming the oldest gold medalist in gymnastics history, she remained in Australia following the Soviet invasion of Hungary after an anti-Soviet uprising. Eventually immuning to Israel, she dedicated her life to coaching, influencing generations of gymnasts until her retirement in the 1990s (source: Time, The Hill, LA Times, and NPR).